Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 11:40:02 PDT
ATLANTA, July 24 (Reuter) - Aleksandra Ivosev won
Yugoslavia's first gold medal of the Atlanta Olympics when she
triumphed in the women's 50-metre standard rifle event on
Wednesday.
Ivosev, whose training for the Games was hit by United
Nations sanctions against her country, set an Olympic record of
686.1 points as she added to the bronze medal she won in the
10-metre air rifle on Saturday.
Poland's Renata Mauer, who won the gold on Saturday, had to
be content with the bronze and Russia's Irina Gerasimenok took
the silver.
``I'm very glad that I proved to the world that Yugoslavian
sports people can do well despite the conditions. I'm very proud
of that,'' said Ivosev.
She said one of the biggest problems she faced in the run-up
to the Olympics was not being able to compete internationally
for two years because of the U.N. sanctions.
The sanctions were imposed against Serbian-dominated rump
Yugoslavia because of its role in the Bosnian war.
``I got used to the conditions so that I didn't let them
influence my training,'' said Ivosev.''I tried to forget about
politics and concentrate on training for the Olympics.''
Ivosev produced a superb performance to average 9.9 points a
shot in the final round, which was watched by several thousand
spectators at the Olympic range.
Mauer had a two point advantage from the qualifying stage
but that disappeared with scores of only 7.6 and 7.4 in her
first two shots of the final round.