World Record Holder Falls Short in Preliminary. Spectators and competitors were shocked to watch Vessela LETCHEVA of Bulgaria fail to make the final in the women's air rifle event. Her score of 392 was one point shy of qualifying for the final. She currently holds the world record in women's final air rifle with a score of 501.5. She also won a silver medal in women's three position in 1988. The top score was a 397, shot by Petra HORNEBER of Germany. Qualifiers in the preliminary round were: Petra HORNEBER (GER), 397; Renata MAUER (POL), 395; Valerie BELLENOUE (FRA), 395; Marta NEDVEDOVA (CZE), 395; Aleksandra IVOSEV (YUG), 395; Olga POGREBNIAK (BLR), 394; Lesa LESKIV (UKR), 394; and Eva JOO (HUN), 393.
Medalists: Renata MAUER (POL), 497.6; Petra HORNEBER (GER), 497.4; Aleksandra IVOSEV (YUG), 497.2.
WANG Collapses After Final Shot: WANG Yifu (CHN) passed during the men's 10m pistol final today. He was leading Roberto DI DONNA (ITA) by 3.8 points before he fired his last shot, a devastating 6.5. Di DONNA won by only 0.1 point. WANG was taken to the medical tent for care and a teammate stood expressionless as he accepted WANG's silver medal for him. Jerzy PIETRZAK, seeded second, fell to fifth place with his final of 97.7. Medalists: Roberto Di Donna (ITA), 684.2; WANG Yifu (CHN), 684.1; Tanu KIRIAKOV (BUL), 683.8.
Three Shoot Perfect Scores in Round One: Day one of two in men's trap qualifiers resulted in perfect scores of 75 from Karsten BINDRICH (GER), John MAXWELL (AUS), and PARK Chul-Sung (KOR). Seven others trail by only 1 point. Tomorrow all of the competitors will shoot 50 more targets. The top six will go on to the final, where they will shoot 25 more targets to decide the medalists. A record will be set tomorrow by the competitor who wins the gold medal because this is a new Olympic event.
"Everything is going well," said Josh Lakatos (USA).
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| The Mother Nature was kind to Olympic athletes and spectators. The average high temperature during the Games was 89 degrees with an average low of 72 degrees. Highest temperature registered (20 July) - 99 degrees. Lowest high temperature registered is 79 degrees (28 July). |