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Japanese Isa Hidenori competes in the
men's 10km biathlon at the 6th Asian Winter Games in Jilin, a city in
northeast China's Jilin Province, Jan. 29, 2007. Isa Hidenori on Monday
won the gold medal of the event in 29 minutes and 35.66 seconds. (Xinhua
Photo/Guo Dayue)
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JILIN, Northeast China, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Isa
Hidenori stormed to victory at the biathlon men's 10km sprint event of the 6th
Asian Winter Games at the Beidahu ski resort on Monday.
The 31-year-old Japanese veteran did not even miss
one single shot before clocking 29 minutes 35.66 seconds on a windy and snowy
day.
Zhang Chengye, missing four shots in all the shooting
leg, finished second with a clocking of 29 minutes 43.33 seconds on back of his
superb cross-country run.
Another Chinese Zhang Qing was third, a distant 53.18
seconds behind the Japanese biathlete.
"Shooting has long been my shortest plank in the
training and competition, all my focus will be put on the crucial leg in future,
especially from the standing position," said 25-year-old Zhang Chengye, who
missed uncharacteristic three shots from the standing position in Monday's
competition.
Combined with strong wind, snow started to fall just
ahead of the men's competition and caused problems with the contenders both in
shooting and skiing.
Isa surprised all the favorites by becoming the only
athlete who registered an clean sheet in the shooting leg.
"We made full precautions for the bad weather as the
snow was forecast yesterday," said Atsushi Kazama, team leader of the Japanese
biathlon team.
"The Chinese athletes made great progress in recent
years, they are catching up with the top biathletes," he added.
In an eariler event, Chinese women completed a clean sweep of the top three at the 7.5km sprint, beating defending champion Tanaka Tamami from Japan to a disappointing fourth place.
