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Saturday, September 23
Graves takes bronze in skeet
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- U.S. shooters finished the 2000
Olympics just as they started it -- on the medal stand.
Todd Graves of Laurel, Miss., won the bronze medal in men's
skeet Saturday to join Nancy Johnson as the only Americans to win
shooting medals at the Sydney Games.
Slovenia's Rajmond Debevec had an Olympic-record 1,275.1 to win
the men's 50-meter rifle three-position earlier in the day. Juha
Hirvi of Finland won the silver with 1,270.5 and Harald Stenvaag of
Norway took the bronze, scoring 1,268.6.
Mykola Milchev of Ukraine won the skeet gold medal, tying the
world record with a perfect score of 150. Milchev broke the Olympic
mark of 149 set by Italy's Ennio Falco, who failed to qualify for
the finals.
Petr Malek of the Czech Republic won the silver at 148 and
Graves was third with 147.
All six finalists challenged for medals and all finished with
scores of at least 145.
Johnson, of Downers Grove, Ill., won the first gold medal of the
Olympics with a victory a week ago in women's air rifle.
Graves, a three-time Olympian, joins Matt Dryke as the only
Americans to win an Olympic skeet medal. Graves' previous best was
a ninth-place trap-shooting finish eight years ago at Barcelona. He
was 11th in the 1992 skeet and 15th four years ago at Atlanta.
Michael Schmidt Jr. of Eagan, Minn. scored 117.0 to finish in a
tie for 35th place.
Debevec broke the finals mark of 1,273.9 set at the 1996 Games
by France's Jean-Pierre Amat. Debevec also broke the qualifying
record by shooting an 1,177 to advance to the eight-man finals.
"This is the thrill of my life. I feel excellent," said
Debevec, also the world-record holder at 1,287.9. "This is my
fifth attempt at the Olympics and I am really happy to finally
win."
Michael Anti of Winterville, N.C., finished in a three-way tie
for ninth with a score of 1,164. The only other American in the
field was Glenn Dubis of Bethel Park, Pa., who scored 1,160.0 to
place 18th.
It was a disappointing performance for Stenvaag in the final. He
was second to Debevec in the qualifying, but a score of 6.7 on one
of his shots opened the door for Debevec to pull away and Hirvi to
jump up and grab the silver.
"I am very happy," Stenvaag said. "I had not expected to win,
but when I had 6.7, I knew I could at least get a medal."
China led the overall shooting competition with three of the 16
gold medals.
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