Olympics shooting: Sergei Martynov of Belarus wins first gold

Sergei Martynov finally became Olympic champion with a world record 705.5 score in the men's 50m rifle prone to claim gold in his sixth Games.

The reigning world champion's previous Olympic bests were bronze medals in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.

Martynov, 44, set a world record equalling 600 points in qualifying.

The Belarusian then claimed the world and Olympic record in the final to finish ahead of Belgium's Lionel Cox and Slovenia's Rajmond Debevec.

Britain's Jonathan Hammond and James Huckle failed to make the final.

Hammond finished 17th in qualification with 593 points while Huckle came 29th with 591.

Martynov went into the final with just a point advantage over Cox, but his opening 10.8 shot put him in control and his lowest score was 10.2.

That left Cox to battle it out for silver with Debevec, and the Belgian took a 0.4 advantage into the 10th and final shot, but scored 10.4 while the Slovenian only managed 10.6 to hold on for second.