LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Doug Koenig of Albertis, Pa., had already won what essentially were two "gold medal matches" on his way to the finals of the Rifle competition at ESPN's Great Outdoor Games Saturday.

	Jerry Miculek got the best of the field Saturday in Lake Placid.

Back-to-back victories over Bob Mastroianni — in a rematch of the 2000 Great Outdoor Games gold medal match — and eventual 2002 bronze medalist Carl Bernosky earned Koenig only the chance to compete against defending gold medalist Jerry Miculek.

In a random seeding of the 16-man field, the concensus was that five of the top six shooters ended up in the lower half of the bracket. It created some high drama there while Miculek was wiping out the field on the other half.

After working through some hiccups in both .22-caliber rifles during his three previous matches, Miculek saved his best for last in successfully defending his gold medal and sending Koenig home with a silver medal for the third year in a row.

"I had malfunctions on every round until the final," said Miculek, a 47-year-old firearms instructor from Princeton, La., who is known for his "let it rip" style.

"I don't know if it was the altitude or me shaking so much that caused the problems because both guns were working perfectly before I came here. I had no problems in that last round and turned it loose.

"Those little targets were jumping around on me for awhile, so I had to keep shooting at them. The big thing is to get on the dueling tree fast and don't look back. It's easy to say and hard to do."

Koenig admitted he got "a little cloudy" in the finals, allowing Miculek an advantage on the dueling tree.

	“	Those little targets were jumping around on me for awhile, so I had to keep shooting at them. The big thing is to get on the dueling tree fast and don't look back. It's easy to say and hard to do. ”
		— Gold medalist Jerry Miculek

"I put in two better rounds earlier," said Koenig, 33, who is known as one of the best all-around shooters in the world, as he competes in shotgun and handgun events as well.

"I really stayed relaxed and composed in the two previous matches. But panic set in a little bit on that last one."

Miculek's style is to put pressure on his competitor.

"I knew if I had him working on my side (of the dueling tree) I had him. I don't ever want to think about his tree."

In this unique rifle format, each shooter has a horizontal bank of 10 targets at 60 yards that are worth four points each.

The dueling tree stands at 50 yards and consists of five increasingly smaller vertical targets worth increasingly more points, from a three-inch circle worth six points at the bottom of the tree to a one-inch circle worth 15 points at the top. Total possible score is 100 points. Maximum time allowed is one minute; however a match ends sooner when a shooter has all targets in the scoring position for a 100-point total.

The drama occurs on the dueling tree, where a shooter is able to knock the opponent's targets from the scored position back to the live position, thus deducting those points from his opponent's total.

For instance, in their quarterfinal match, Mastroianni was one target away from closing out Koenig, when Koenig knocked four of Mastroianni's targets back to the unscored position and got even again. Koenig led 70-40 when the 60-second horn sounded.

Mastroianni, a 51-year-old store manager from Monson, Maine, beat Koenig 100-48 to win the 2000 Rifle gold medal.

Practically the same scenario played out in Koenig's semifinal win over Bernosky. Bernosky, a 45-year-old business owner from Ashland, Penn., was one target away from closing out Koenig before Koenig went to work on Bernosky's dueling tree and got even en route to a 100-55 win.

"Once you get on that dueling tree anything can happen," Bernosky said. Shooters are limited to 10-round clips, however they can reload as many clips as possible in the one-minute time period.

"I ran out of bullets with that one target left," Bernosky said. "By the time I'd reloaded, Doug had closed me off. It was bink, bink, bink, bink, and it was over that quick."

Bernosky then put on a show of his own in beating Mark Mazzotta to earn the bronze medal, reaching the 100 point total in only 22.5 seconds for a 100-36 final score.

In earning his second straight gold medal, Miculek admitted he worked through some personal tension in addition to his gun problems early in the competition. "I was really tight coming in here," he said. "In one of those early rounds, I needed 55 shots to win. I shot close to 50 times in another one."

But he was on when it counted, leaving Koenig one step short of gold one more time.

"I want to win the gold medal," Koenig said. "But at the same time, I'd rather have silver than bronze or nothing at all. This is frustrating. I'll win this thing one day."