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Slovakia Medals In Shooting

ATLANTA (AP) -- It will take Jozef Gonci 24 hours to get back to Slovakia. Once there, he doesn't plan to rest long.

``I will show it to everybody who wants to see it,'' Gonci said of the bronze medal he won Thursday in the Olympic 50-meter free rifle prone finals. ``I am very proud because it will become part of my country's history.''

The Olympic medal is the first for Slovakia, which declared independence from Czechoslovakia in 1993.

Germany's Christian Klees won the gold medal with a world-record score of 704.8 points. Teammate Ralf Schumann defended his title in the 25-meter rapid fire pistol finals, giving Germany its first two golds of these games.

Gonci and his coach, Anton Belak, were surprised by his strong showing.

``If I had finished eighth, I would still be very happy because it is my best (score) and a Slovakian record that I shot,'' Gonci said.

Belak said Gonci's strongest event is in 50-meter three-position rifle, which will be held Saturday. No matter, said Belak, Gonci will return to his hometown of Kosice a hero.

``This is a very important day for all Slovak sports,'' Belak said.

Schumann, who holds the world-record score of 699.7 in the rapid fire pistol, scored a lopsided victory with a score of 698, an Olympic record. Emil Milev of Bulgaria took the silver (692.1) and Vladimir Vokhmyanin of Kazakstan the bronze (691.5).

Schumann clinched the gold with a qualifying score of 596. That gave him a six-point lead over Milev heading into the finals, where the athletes shoot two series of five shots at five adjacent targets with a 4-inch-wide bullseye.

Asked if he thought he could catch Schumann in the finals, Milev contemplated for a moment. ``There is always a chance, but no, I was there to keep my second place,'' he said.

Klees did not score lower than a 10.3 in his 10 shots in the finals. His total, including a world record-tying perfect score of 600 in the preliminary round, broke the previous mark of 703.5 by Jens Harskov of Denmark in 1991.

Sergey Beliaev of Kazakhstan took the silver with 703.3, and Gonci scored 701.9.

In free rifle prone, athletes lie on their stomachs and shoot .22-caliber rifles at targets 50 meters away. The target's center is smaller than a dime.

American Bill Meek, 43 of Upland, Calif., was fifth going into the finals and finished eighth. He dropped to seventh after his first shot of 9.7 and was no higher than seventh through the rest of the competition.

In rapid fire pistol, four-time Olympian John McNally of Columbus, Ga., finished in a tie for 12th in the qualifying round and Roger Mar of Seattle, Wash., was 18th.