Bulgarian On Target 12 Years Later

Twelve years after winning his first gold medal, Tanyu Kiriakov of Bulgaria added a second, this time in the men’s 50-meter pistol competition.

Kiriakov, a gold medalist in the 10-meter air pistol at the Seoul Games in 1988, won the 50-meter event today with 666 points at Sydney.

Igor Basinsky of Belarus won the silver and Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic the bronze. Basinsky, who won the gold at this year’s Atlanta World Cup event, defended the silver medal he won at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

In women’s double trap, Kim Rhode scored 139 points today to finish third behind Pia Hansen of Sweden and Deborah Gelisio of Italy.

Kiriakov entered the eight-man final on top with 570 points. He scored more that 10 points in five of the 10 rounds in the final to hold off Basinsky, who scored 663.3.

Wang Yifu of China, the current world champion, finished sixth with 659.0 points. Wang was the 10-meter air pistol silver medalist in these games. Atlanta gold medalist Boris Kokorev, of Russia, failed to reach the finals. He scored 559 points and finished in a 12th-place tie.

Bill Demarest, the event’s world record-holder from Mission Viejo, scored 552 points and placed 23rd. Demarest set a finals record of 676.2 at this year’s Milan World Cup -- breaking Kiriakov’s previous record mark of 675.3.