BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 6 : DAILY REPORT : SHOOTING : Meili Erases Bad Memories With Rare Gold for U.S.

This time, there was no final-round collapse.

Launi Meili of Colorado Springs, Colo., won the gold medal in women’s three-position small-bore rifle competition at Mollet Del Valles. It was only the second women’s shooting gold for an American in Olympic history and one of the biggest surprises of the Games.

It wiped out the horrible memory of Meili’s performance four years ago in Seoul. There, she set an Olympic record in the preliminaries of the air rifle event to take first place, then faltered in the final round and finished sixth.

Meili, 29, found redemption Thursday. She had a final-round score of 97.3 points for an overall total of 684.3, both Olympic records. Bulgaria’s Nonka Detcheva won the silver with 682.7. Malgorzata Ksiazkiewicz of Poland won the bronze at 681.5. Ann-Marie Pfiffner of Dubuque, Iowa, tied for 12th.

“Right now, it’s hard for me to comprehend it,� Meili said. “I feel like I have 10 shots to go. There’s no more pressure in the world.�

Said U.S. rifle Coach Robert Mitchell: “She made her mind up that what happened in ’88 wasn’t going to happen again.�

Meili led heading into the final round, two points ahead of Ksiazkiewicz, and missed the world record by six-tenths of a point.

The only other U.S. shooter to win an Olympic gold in women’s competition was Pat Spurgin, in the air rifle in 1984, the first year women’s shooting was an Olympic sport.

Sunday, Meili tied for 11th in the women’s air rifle. In addition to her air rifle collapse in 1988, she finished seventh in the three-position event at Seoul.

Ralf Schumann of Germany won the gold in men’s rapid-fire pistol with 885 points. Afanasijs Kuzmins of Latvia took the silver with 882. Vladimir Vokhmianine of the Commonwealth of Independent States got the bronze, also at 882. Kuzmins was the first to receive an Olympic medal under the Latvian flag since 1936.

CYCLING

Twigg Upsets World Champion to Reach Semifinals in Pursuit

In a major upset, Rebecca Twigg of San Diego beat four-time world champion Jeannie Longo of France in the quarterfinals of the 3,000-meter individual pursuit. Twigg defeated Longo by four one-hundredths of a second with a time of 3 minutes 46.508 seconds.

The event, in which riders start on opposite sides of the track and try to catch one another or record the fastest time in 12 laps, is making its Olympic debut.

“I expected Longo to go faster,� said Twigg, who came out of a 3 1/2-year retirement in October after it was announced that the Olympics had added her best event. “But there’s a lot of fast riders, a couple that I didn’t expect. But with the pursuit, it’s easy to have people come up in a year. That’s basically what I did when I started my comeback.�

Other semifinal qualifiers were Denmark’s Hanne Malmberg, Germany’s Petra Rossner, the favorite, and Australia’s Kathryn Watt, who won the women’s road race Sunday.

SOCCER

Australia in Quarterfinals

Anthony Vidmar’s goal with 15 minutes remaining helped Australia reach the quarterfinals in a 3-0 victory over Denmark at Zaragoza. The victory gives Australia (1-1-1) three points in Group D, the same as Mexico (0-0-3), which tied Ghana, 1-1. But Australia’s three goals gave it one more overall than Mexico. Ghana (1-0-2) advanced as the top team in Group D.

In other games, Paraguay beat Morocco, 3-1, and Korea and Sweden tied, 1-1.

FIELD HOCKEY

Australia and Germany Tie

Heading into Thursday’s action, Australia and Germany were tied with four points atop Pool A. And nothing changed when the Aussies and Germans played to a 1-1 tie. The Netherlands and Pakistan continue to lead Pool B with six points each. Pakistan (3-0) had little trouble as it beat the CIS, 6-2. Meanwhile, the Netherlands (3-0) had a tougher-than-expected test with New Zealand before winning, 4-3. New Zealand (0-3) is tied with Malaysia at the bottom of Pool B. In other games, Britain defeated India, 3-1; Argentina edged Egypt, 1-0, and Spain beat Malaysia, 5-2.

TEAM HANDBALL

CIS Capitalizes on U.S. Fouls

The CIS took advantage of U.S. foul trouble to beat the American women, 23-16. With 11 1/2 minutes left in the first half, the United States led, 9-7. But Patricia Neder of Waukesha, Wis., drew a two-minute penalty with 9:06 remaining and Laura Coenen of Neenah, Wis., received another penalty with 6:28 left.

Then the CIS took advantage of the short-handed Americans, pulled ahead, 15-10, and never was seriously threatened again. Team captain Carol Peterka of St. Cloud, Minn., led the Americans with four goals.

MEDALISTS

* SHOOTING

(Men’s rapid-fire pistol)

GOLD: Ralf Schumann (Germany)

SILVER: Afanasijs Kuzmins (Latvia)

BRONZE: Vladimir Vokhmianine (CIS)

(Women’s three-position small-bore rifle)

GOLD: Launi Meili (United States)

SILVER: Nonka Detcheva (Bulgaria)

BRONZE: Malgorzata Ksiazkiewicz (Poland)