ACOG - News - IBM

(25 July 1996; Day 6)

Records Shattered Daily at Wolf Creek

Shattered records are becoming almost as common as shattered targets at the Olympic Games shooting events this week at the Wolf Creek Shooting Complex.

In the men's smallbore prone event, Christian KLEES broke an Olympic and world record by shooting a perfect score of 600. Then, to top it off, he broke the final Olympic record with a score of 704.8.

KLEES said that breaking records is an afterthought. "Winning the Olympics was clearly more important than setting a world record," he said. "You can set a world record at any national or international competition. Winning at the Olympics is much more important."

In the men's trap event, gold medalist Michael DIAMOND (AUS) set an Olympic record with his preliminary score of 124/125. He missed only one target throughout the qualifiers and the finals on his way to breaking a final Olympic record. He, like KLEES, was just trying to compete well in the Olympic Games. "I really wanted to see my country's flag raised," he said. "I was determined."

Kim RHODE (USA), who just turned 17, set an Olympic record in women's double trap with a score of 108/125 and a final Olympic record with 141/150. Since this was the first year for the event, her gold-medal winning performance automatically set a record. This did not faze RHODE, who said, "I was there to have a good time and do the best I could. I'm still on cloud nine."

With five events remain in shooting (men's 10m running target, men's 25m running target, women's sport pistol, men's skeet, and men's free rifle), there are still chances that the Olympic record book will have to be rewritten yet again in Atlanta.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Janelle Whateley.


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More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined.