With a two-point lead in the preliminary round, Napolski set the pace for the first final of the Olympic test event. In the end, the scores dwindled to just 1.1 points separating the top three finishers.

"The two point lead was very important, but you can't rely on it. Anything can happen in a final," said Napolski, a horticulture major at the University of Kentucky. "I didn't feel the pressure so much. I was just nervous."

Napolski finished with 398 out of 400 points in the preliminary round and 102.0/109 in the final for 500.0/509 points overall, 1.5 points off the current world record.

"I was trying to shoot a center 10, but the longer I stand the shakily I get. I've got a very quick hold, around 15 seconds," said Napolski. "I hope I can re-do this at the Olympics."

"[Napolski] didn't shoot deep 10s, but she shot solid," said National Rifle Coach Bob Mitchell. "She and April both shot superb. This was their first final in world competition. For their involvement in world level competition, the results of both the match scores and finals are truly outstanding."

Jung Kim (KOR) claimed her first international medal, a silver in the women's air rifle. Kim, 22, fired a 499.4/509. Bronze medalist Irina Shilova, 36, (BLR) fired a 499.2, two-tenths behind Kim. ` 92 Olympic silver medalist Vessela Letcheva, 31, (BUL) was seventh at 495.8.

`96 Olympian Elizabeth Bourland, 33, (Wichita Falls, Texas) was 15th with 391/400.

The men's air pistol event came down to the wire with Roberto Di Donna, 27, (ITA) and Yifu Wang (CHN) tied for the gold on the ninth shot of the 10-shot final. Di Donna fired a perfect 10.9 to Wang's 10.1 for the gold. Di Donna finished at 687.1/709. Wang took the silver with 686.3, and Serguei Pyjianov (RUS) was third at 684.8.

"I lost in Cuba in finals and I was hoping to pull it all together here," said Di Donna.

U.S. shooters finished out of the finals in men's air pistol. Greg Derr (Marshfield, Mass.) was 19th with 579/600. Ben Amonette (Radford, Va.) finished 27th with 577. Olympic Training Center resident Neal Caloia (Cottage Grove, Ore.) placed 39th at 574.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 23) -- U.S. shooters came up empty handed in the medal count on the second day of competition at the 1996 UIT Atlanta World Cup, Wolf Creek Shooting Complex, Apr. 23. But, the day brought good news for pistol shooter JoAnn Sevin (Brockway, Pa.) who passed the final step in qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team.

The Atlanta World Cup was Sevin's first and only chance to shoot a minimum qualifying score (MQS), a requirement for each Olympic shooting event. Sevin, 19, fired a 373 out of 400, surpassing the minimum of 365 for women's air pistol.

"I had a really tough match today. I fought for every point I got," said Sevin. "The score was actually higher than I expected. Now I can concentrate on training to shoot my best score at the Olympics"

Sevin's teammate Rebecca Snyder (Grand Junction, Colo.), also 19, shot a 375/400, with the third U.S. shooter, Libby Callahan (Upper Marlboro, Md.), 44, scoring 372. Although she was among the top six shooters in the final round, Snyder was an avid spectator.

"It's a lot of pressure, but I'd like the chance to experience that pressure. The biggest thing I notice watching shooters in a final is that, whatever their style, it's exactly the same each time," explained Snyder. "They have more experience and technical ability. JoAnn and I are still building our base of technical ability."

Jasna Sekaric (YUG) shot 102.0/109 in the final to jump from seventh place to third with an overall score of 484.0/509. Bulgaria's Maria Grozdeva claimed the silver medal with 486.1, and Nino Salukvadze (GEO) took the gold by four-tenths with 486.5.

In men's trap, Zhao Guisheng (CHN) shattered 123/125 targets in the men's trap preliminary round. He ran a perfect 25/25 in final for an aggregate score of 146/150 and the gold medal. Four shooters broke 146/150, forcing a tie-breaker shoot-off. Germany's Karsten Bindrich dropped his second bird and had to settle for fifth place. On the next shot, Australian Michael Diamond failed to release the safety on his gun, resulting in a missed target. Two targets later, Zhang Yongjie of China went down for the bronze. Vladimir Slamka of Slovakia claimed the silver medal with four targets.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 24) -- For the second consecutive day, U.S. shooters placed out of the medals at the 1996 UIT Atlanta World Cup, Wolf Creek Shooting Complex, Apr. 24.

Ken Johnson (USA), who shot a 594/600 but wasn't able to shoot the final.

"For me, it wasn't holding very well. I tried working through it, but it just wasn't working. Maybe if I would have relaxed a little, it would've helped, but you never know," said U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Captain Glenn Dubis (Bethel Park, Pa.). "Some days are good, and some are not so good."

Dubis, 37, turned out the highest U.S. score at 584 out of 600 points. His teammate, Rob Harbison, 29, (Fallston, Md.) also fired 584, with the third U.S. athlete shooting in competition, Marcos Scrivner, 20, finishing a point behind at 583.

Leif Rolland (NOR) won the men's air rifle gold medal with 595/600 in the match and 102.5/109 in the finals. The silver medal went to Anatoli Klimenko (BLR) at 695.8/709, and the bronze to Korean shooter Lim Young with 695.2.

"I won today but could be 13th at the Olympics; it's hard to say who will make the finals," said the 25-year-old Rolland. "It's my personal best, actually, in a big competition. I'm satisfied," he added.

In men's free pistol, all three U.S. shooters scored high enough to compete in the preliminary round on Apr. 25.. Olympic Training Center (OTC) resident athlete Neal Caloia (Cottage Grove, Ore.) shot 556/600 to claim the highest U.S. score. Ben Amonette finished the elimination round at 552 with Greg Derr (Marshfield, Mass.) at 546. The top eight finishers in the preliminary round will shoot a 10-shot final to determine the gold medalist.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 25) -- Competing in the newest Olympic shooting event, two `96 Olympians brought home the women's double trap silver and bronze medals for the U.S. at the 1996 UIT Atlanta World Cup, Wolf Creek Shooting Complex, Apr. 25.

In addition to being the official test event for the Olympic shooting venue, the Atlanta World Cup is part of an annual series of events in international shooting. Top finishers are invited to the World Cup Final in September.

"This was my first medal in a World Cup," said Sgt. Terry DeWitt (Cincinnati, Ohio), a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. "I'm really looking forward to the Olympics; I'm ready."

DeWitt, 33, was in third place going into the finals with 104 out of 120 targets. She shattered 39/40 targets in the final for an aggregate of 143, four targets behind gold medalist Ritta Murtoniemi of Finland at 147. The bronze medal went to Kim Rhode (El Monte, Calif.) with 142.

"I was leading going into the finals, but I'm pleased with the results," said Rhode. "This summer I hope to be the youngest (U.S.) to bring home the gold," she added.

DeWitt and Rhode qualified for the `96 Olympic Shooting Team at the U.S. Olympic Trials for Shooting, Mar. 30-Apr. 7.

The third U.S. shooter, Ellie Schad (North Platte, Neb.) broke 91 targets to finish 20th. In double trap, targets are fired from an underground bunker two at a time. Shooters have only two shots to break both target.

Italy's Roberto Di Donna scored his second gold medal at the Atlanta World Cup, this time in free pistol. Di Donna went into the final with a substantial three point lead. He finished 2.4 points ahead at 669.5/709. The silver medal went to Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic with 667.1 and the bronze to China's Xu Dan with 664.1.

"Of course I'm happy, because it's my 10th victory in World Cups," commented Di Donna. "But, it's not complete joy, because I'd like to win in July."

Free pistol preliminaries.

Ben Amonette (Radford, Va.) turned in the highest U.S. score at 553/600, with Neal Caloia (Cottage Grove, Ore.) a point behind at 552. Greg Derr (Marshfield, Mass.) finished with 549.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 26) -- Olympic alternate John Oppio (Sparks, Nev.} outshot teammate Lance Bade by a single target to claim his second international gold medal in less than two weeks at the Wolf Creek Shooting Complex.

Oppio, 23, broke 189 out of 200 targets for first place in men's double trap at the 1996 UIT World Cup, Apr. 26. Earlier, on Apr. 17, he hit 187/200 for the gold at the North American Shooting Championships.

"I wanted to show that I could beat everyone," said Oppio, who shattered 47 out of 50 targets in the final despite windy conditions. "The targets were pretty jumpy out there, but you see the target, and you subconsciously move with it."

Bade, 25, was a target behind Oppio and U.S. Army Marksmanship shooter David Alcoriza (Lodi, Calif.) going into the final. Oppio and Alcoriza, 27, were tied with Turkey's Servet Sivrikaya at 142/150.

"I dropped two out of my last three pair; that's what cost me the match," said Bade. "I got a little fast at the end. I didn't give myself that end to chase it (the target)."

Bade finished with 188/200 overall, followed by Russell Mark of Australia at 186. Alcoriza dropped to fourth place with 185.

"The best thing, but the hardest to accept, was that we crushed the world team record, but there's no team event," said Bade. In Olympic shooting, there are no team events, and the UIT Atlanta World Cup, a test event for the Olympic Games, is designed to closely follow the Olympic format.

Both U.S. medal winners were using ammo made by Federal Cartridge Co., official sponsor and ammunition supplier for USA Shooting.

Double trap preliminaries.

"Federal's the best by far. You can't beat the consistency of Federal in any condition--wind, rain, cold," said Bade.

On the 25-meter range, athletes completed the first of two days of competition in men's rapid fire pistol `92 Olympic gold medalist Ralf Schumann of Germany scored 297/300 points. He was closely followed by Bulgaria's Sabin Thausnev at 295. Three shooters sit in third place after the first day at 294: Hungarian Lajos Palinkas, Julian Raicea of Romania, and Cuban pistol shooter Guido Arbona.

With 290 points, John McNally (Heath, Texas) holds the highest U.S. score halfway through the rapid fire preliminary rounds. Roger Mar (Seattle, Wash.) is a point back at 289, while Terry Anderson (Dallas, Texas) has 287. Pistol shooters will fire the second half of the 60-shot preliminary round and the 10-shot final on Apr. 27.

"In eight seconds, I dropped two points," said McNally, 40. "This is only the third match I've shot this year, and it's a big one. The others were selection matches which aren't good training for this."

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 27) -- U.S. Olympian Bill Meek (Upland, Calif.) shot his way into first place in men's free rifle prone to claim the third U.S. gold medal at the 1996 while John McNally (Heath, Texas) made a tremendous jump from 16th to a bronze medal in rapid fire pistol at the 1996 UIT Atlanta World Cup, Wolf Creek Shooting Complex, Apr. 27.

"The wind was moving a little bit, but with the walls, it wasn't moving the bullet as much as it appeared to be. It was challenging," said Meek, an Olympic Training Center resident athlete.

Meek fired a near perfect 597 out of 600 points in the preliminary round and 103.9/109 in the final for an overall score of 700.9/709.

"Today I was very patience," said Meek. "I prefer to have as many points as I can (going into the final). You always like to do a little bit better, but it was okay."

A second U.S. shooter made it into the final tied for third place with 596/600. Eric Uptagrafft (Spokane, Wash.) dropped out of the medals to finish fourth at 698.7/709.

"Eric was out of a medal by two tenths; that's meaningless," said National Rifle Coach Bob Mitchell. "At these World Cups, I don't care if a shooter finishes first or eighth. I want them to get into the final and gain the experience and learn. If they win medals, that's great, too. But, the main thing is that they're in the final. Both Eric and Bill got in the final. They shot some good scores. Today Bill shot a good final and end up winning the match. That doesn't mean he's going to do that in July by any means, but it sure shows that we're capable of getting there and getting it done-- either one or both of them."

The silver men's prone medal went to Tadeusz Czerwinski of Poland with 699.3.

On the final day of men's rapid fire pistol competition, McNally finished the preliminary round in a three-way tie for fourth place. Shooting a 102.5/109 in the final, McNally pushed into third place for the bronze medal.

"I had a bad four second series and wound up in 16th place yesterday. I feel really good about the comeback," said McNally. "This is only my third match this year, and only a month ago, I could barely hit the side of a barn."

McNally won the gold medal in the North American Championships, Apr. 15-17 and placed fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Mar. 39-Apr. 7.

"What this tells us is that some folks are peaking right now, others are on the way up," said National Pistol Coach Erich Buljung. "Because of the way John has shot the last four matches, it's an indication that he is improving greatly every time he goes out and trains. He looks very good for the upcoming World Cups and the Olympics."

The rapid fire pistol gold went to world record holder Ralf Schumann of Germany with 693.9/709. Poland's Krzyszt Kucharczyk took the silver at 690.2.

Roger Mar (Seattle, Wash.), another OTC resident athlete, scored 581/600, and the third U.S. shooter, Terry Anderson (Dallas, Texas), finished the rapid fire match at 580.

U.S. running target shooters moved a half step closer to the Olympic team, completing day one of the two-day running target event. Scores from the North American Shooting Championships, held Apr. 15-17, and the Atlanta World Cup will determine the single shooter who will fill the Olympic spot in running target.

Rusty Hill (Sun City, Calif.) fired the top U.S. score with 286/300. Adam Saathoff (Hereford, Ariz.) finished day one a point behind at 285. Other U.S. shooters in contention for the Olympic team are: Lonn Saunders (Billings, Mont.), 282; Bill Johnson (Woodville, Miss.), 284; and Koby Holland (Dillon, Mont.), 269.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Apr. 28) -- Twenty-year-old Adam Saathoff (Hereford, Ariz.) finished among the top five shooters in the men's running target event on his way to qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team at the 1996 UIT Atlanta World Cup, Apr. 28.

Held at theWolf Creek Shooting Complex, the Atlanta World Cup was the second of two matches to determine which shooter would fill the single Olympic slot in running target for the United States.

"I thought there was a lot of pressure in the first match, but I didn't feel any pressure until I shot this match here today," said Saathoff. "I was nervous on the slow run. My fast has always been higher than my slow run. I've been shooting fast runs pretty well for the last year and a half now. I've got to work on my slow runs and get them up a few points."

Saathoff, who attends Cochise College in Sierra Vista, Ariz., shot a 574 out of 600 points in the preliminary round and 98.0/109 in the final to finish tied for fifth place with Xiao Jun (CHN) at 672.0/709. Saathoff nailed a 10.8 in the shoot-off. Xiao failed to show for the shoot-off, giving the fifth place finish to Saathoff.

"It's a great experience for Adam before the Olympics, because he becomes more familiar with the elite shooters," said National Running Target Coach Sergey Luzov. "He's going to Europe in May. He'll shoot among those elite shooters three times in May and June."

"Running target is different from any other kind of shooting because it's unpredictable," added Luzov. "You have several actions to make one uninterrupted motion."

Lonn Saunders, 24, (Billings, Mont.) turned in the second highest U.S. competition score at 560/600, with Koby Holland (Dillon, Mont.) finishing with a competition score of 545. Shooting "out of competition" for a minimum qualifying score were: Rusty Hill, 25, (Sun City, Calif.) with 566 and 16- year-old Bill Johnson (Woodville, Miss.) at 565.

Russia's Dmitri Lykin won the gold medal and equaled the current world record set in May 1995 by Miroslav Janus of the Czech Republic. Lykin scored 683.4/709. Finishing 4.8 points behind at 678.6 was his teammate Lubos Racansky.

In women's sport pistol, Libby Callahan, 44, (Upper Marlboro, Md.) tied for 16th place with 577/600. U.S. shooters Connie Petracek, 48, (Nashville, Tenn.) scored 566 and Roxane Conrad, 31, (Sandpoint, Idaho), 563.

The U.S. women finished out of the medals in women's 3x20 rifle. Jean Foster, 23, (Bozeman, Mont.) shot 576/600. Elizabeth Bourland, 32, (Wichita Falls, Texas) finished a point behind at 575 and Jayme Dickman, 18 (South Bend, Ind.), two points behind at 574.

The 3x20 gold went to Irina Gerasimenok of Russia at 686.0/709. Olga Pogrebniak of Belarus took the silver with 681.3 and Korea's Kong Hyun the bronze with 681.2.

Bill Roy (Alamogordo, N.M.) stands in second place after day one of the two day men's skeet competition. Roy is a target behind the leader, Mirosla Rzepkowski of Poland, with 73 out of 75 shattered targets. George Quigley (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Todd Graves (Laurel, Miss.) each broke 65 targets.

The final day of competition saw the following results in the men's 3x40 and men's skeet finals:

Men's 3x40 Rifle (top three out of 1309 points; others out of 1200)
1, Serguei Martynov, BLR, 1265.0 (1169+98.0).
2, Artem Khadjibekov, RUS, 1264.8 (1163+96.8).
3, Anatoli Klimenko, BLR, 1263.5 (1169+94.5).
11, Glenn Dubis (USAMU), Bethel Park, Pa., 1161.
28, Rob Harbison (USAMU), 1154.
35, Shawn Wells (OTC), Miami, Fla., 1152.

Men's Skeet (top six out of 150 targets; others out of 125)
1, Jan-Henri Heinrich, GER, 144 (119+25; shoof-off: 27).
2, Soichiro Ito, JPN, 144 (120+24; shoot-off: 26).
3, Christo Kourtellas, CYP, 144 (119+25; shoot-off: 16).
6, Bill Roy (USAF), Alamogordo, N.M., 141 (120+21).
49, George Quigley, Cincinnati, Ohio, 112.
54, Todd Graves (USAMU), Laurel, Miss., 111.