Shooting at the 2012 London Summer Games:

Belarussian [Sergey Martynov] was ranked #1 in the world coming into London and he showed why. Martynov led the qualifying with a 600 possible, equaling the world and Olympic records. In the final he scored 10.8 of 10.9 on his first shot and widened his margin on every shot, finishing with a world record 705.5, which was a full 4.3 points ahead of Belgium’s [Lionel Cox]. Cox was little known, his best international finish previously being ninth in this event at the Olympic Test Event, but he placed second in qualifying and held on for the silver. Martynov won his third medal in small-bore prone, after winning bronze in 2000 and 2004.

The competition was very tight, as nine shooters tied for fourth place in qualifying with 595 points, necessitating a shoot-off for the last five spots in the final. The third qualifier was Slovenian Rajmond Debevec who had previously won this event in 2000 and was a bronze medalist in 2008. Debevec repeated his bronze medal position in London. He was competing in his eighth Olympic Games, consecutively since 1984, making him the first shooter to compete in eight Olympics.