Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre military rifle

Men's military rifle at the Games of the I Olympiad
Pantelis Karasevdas
Venue	Kallithea shooting range
Dates	April 8–9
Competitors	42 from 7 nations
Winning score	2350
Medalists
Pantelis Karasevdas  Greece Pavlos Pavlidis  Greece Nicolaos Trikupis  Greece

The men's 200 metre military rifle event was one of five sport shooting events on the Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. It was held at a distance of 200 metres, on 8 April and 9 April, with each shooter firing half of his shots on the first day and half the second. Shooters fired four strings of ten shots each, for a total of 40 shots. 42 shooters, representing each of the seven nations that had shooters in Athens, competed.

When the competition finished in the morning of 9 April, Pantelis Karasevdas of Greece had hit the target all 40 times, amassing a score of 2,350 points. Panagiotis Pavlidis hit the target 38 times and came in second.

Background

This was the only appearance of the 200 metre military rifle event. Military rifle categories would return in 1920 (a 300 metres (980 ft) three positions event) and 1924 (seven events at 300 and 600 metres (980 and 1,970 ft)). It was the first event held at the newly inaugurated Kallithea shooting range. A ceremonial first shot was fired by Olga Constantinovna of Russia, the queen consort of the Hellenes.

Competition format

The competition had each shooter fire 40 shots, in 4 strings of 10, at a range of 200 metres. Scoring involved multiplying target hits by points scored in each string.

Schedule

Date		Time	Round
Gregorian	Julian
Wednesday, 8 April 1896 Thursday, 9 April 1896	Wednesday, 27 March 1896 Thursday, 28 March 1896	10:30	Strings 1–2 Strings 3–4

Results

Only partial results are known.

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score	Hits	1	2	3	4
	Pantelis Karasevdas	Greece	2,350	40	480	Unknown
	Panagiotis Pavlidis	Greece	1,978	38	Unknown
	Nicolaos Trikupis	Greece	1,713	34	Unknown
4	Anastasios Metaxas	Greece	1,701	Unknown
5	Georgios Orphanidis	Greece	1,698	Unknown
6	Viggo Jensen	Denmark	1,640	30	Unknown
7	Georgios Diamantis	Greece	1,456	Unknown		384	Unknown
8	Albert Baumann	Switzerland	1,294	Unknown
9	Ioannis Theofilakis	Greece	1,261	Unknown		312	Unknown
10	Sidney Merlin	Great Britain	1,156	Unknown	477	Unknown
11	Alexios Fetsios	Greece	894	Unknown		272	Unknown
12	Eugen Schmidt	Denmark	845	12	Unknown
	Spiridon Stais	Greece	845	Unknown
14–41	Charles Waldstein	United States	Unknown		354	154	Unknown
	Machonet	Great Britain	Unknown
	Giuseppe Rivabella	Italy	Unknown
	Aristovoulos Petmezas	Greece	Unknown
	Albin Lermusiaux	France	Unknown
	G. Karagiannopoulos	Greece	Unknown
	22 others, names unknown	Greece	Unknown
—	Holger Nielsen	Denmark	Retired after two strings		Unknown		Did not finish

References

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1])
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.