Special Report: 6th City Sports
Games
WUHAN, Central China, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- After
surpassing the men's 10 meters air rifle world record in the Chinese City Games,
Olympic champion Zhu Qinan has set a higher aim -- to break the national record
one more time.
The 2004 Olympic gold medalist outscored the world
mark of 703.1 points, set by Austrian Thomas Farnik, as he won the City Games
title in 703.7 on Friday, a new national record.
"My aim is to break more national records," said Zhu.
The previous national record held by his teammate Li
Jie stood at 703.4 points, 0.3 points higher than the world record.
"Zhu Qinan made a good start," said Wang Yifu, head
coach of the national team. "I had predicted Zhu to surprise us. But I didn't
expect him to be so good."
Wang has confidence in the marksman. "He has
potential in other disciplines as well, such as the men's 50m rifle three
positions," he said.
Zhu's teammate Cao Yifei stole attention in another
way.
National record holder of the men's 50m rifle prone
with a score of 702.7 points, the 19-year-old from southwest China's Sichuan
province captured three gold medals in the 50m rifle prone, rifle three
positions and 10m air rifle team event, with his last competition in the men's
50m rifle three positions event on Tuesday afternoon most eye-catching.
Eight points behind the top finalist Liu Gang and
tied with ZhuQinan, the teenage shooter managed to surpass the Asian Games
goldmedalist and knock the world champion to snatch gold with his stable
performance.
"In the final, I tried not to look at the scores on
the screen, just concentrating on my performance," he said.
"He is young, but he appeared calm and composed in
competition," said Wang Yifu.
Cao, however, is unlikely to be crowned in his
specialty event in the 2008 Olympics.
Ranked No. 4 in the men's 50m rifle prone in the
national team, Cao is unable to compete in the upcoming Asian championships in
Kuwait for a ticket to the Olympics.
"Competing in the Olympics is a dream of every
athlete," said the shooter. "But I couldn't think too much of this. My current
job is to improve myself and do well in each competition."
In the women's events, Guo Wenjun, runner-up in the
women's 25mpistol at the World Cup Finals, was most impressive.
Obviously not in good from, the 23-year-old
markswoman from Xi'an of northwest China's Shaanxi Province edged into the final
on Monday as the last with 577 points, and ended up fifth.
In the women's 10m air pistol on Tuesday, she rallied
to dominate the qualification round with 390 points.
However, she didn't do well at the beginning of the
10-shot final, while her national teammate Wang Dehui appeared stable in her
performance by cutting her three-point gap from Guo to less than one after the
sixth shot.
From the seventh shot, Guo seemed to regain her
sharpness, scoring the following three at 10.9, 10.8 and 10.7 points to pull
away from her competitors and clinched the gold medal.
"After a string of bad marks, I told myself, 'let it
be'," she smiled.
"It is her unique merit to turn the tables in front
of adversity," national team official Gao Zhidan said. "She stood the test."
Guo, with her qualification results of the 10m air
pistol lingering at 390 points, or three points below the world record, carved
out in the world arena as a formidable competitor of 25m pistol as well and
succumbed only to Chen Ying, who was ranked the world's No. 1 in the discipline,
at the World Cup Finals.
"She carries the hope of the women's pistol events,"
Wang Yifu said.
