BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two Olympic debutants grasped the first two gold medals for the Chinese shooting team, shrugging off the disappointment and upset after the shooters missed the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games.

    Pang Wei, 22, won the gold medal in the men's 10-meter air pistol competition on Aug. 9 and Guo Wenjun, 24, added another gold in the women's 10-meter air pistol contest a day later.

    Both young, talented and true gun lovers, the two took different paths to reach the same destination.

    DETERMINED SHOOTER SINCE A BOY

    Pang Wei, turning 22 just about a month ago, was the usual naughty boy in Boading city of northern Hebei Province, and loved to play with guns until he was sent to a shooting training course at the age of 14.

    "He came to me one day and asked to take a shooting course. I did not think much. Since he liked it, it did no harm and he would have a place to go after school," said his father Pang Yanhong. "We had never planned to make him an athlete."

    But the time for him to make a tough choice about his son's future came quickly.

    "In the course for amateurs, he only went shooting in the afternoon after school. But he was very much into it. Soon we found his performance in school was worsening at the same speed as he improved in the shooting gallery," the father said.

    It is a difficult decision for Chinese parents to send their children to the sport field. Many prefer an ordinary life track from the college to decent jobs rather than the dramatic up-and-down life of athletes.

    Pang's coach Zhang Guangwei went to his father. "I 'kidnapped' him from his father," joked Zhang, recalling the old story. "I seldom interfered in parents' decision but this one was special. I could sense his talent. So I told his father he was wasting his son's gift if he did not let him be a shooter."

    The training was very boring for a kid. "You stood there for hours for a right posture. To improve the stability of hands, you had to shoot a gun hung with bricks. But Pang put up with all this," he said.

    The determination of the boy and assurance from the coach pushed the father to drop his son out of middle school and send him for full-time training.

    Of course this proved to be the right decision. Two years later, Pang was a national under-age champion and, at the age of 19, he was chosen by Wang Yifu, former famed national shooter and chief coach, for the national shooting team.

    At the 49th International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Shooting Championships in Zagreb, Croatia in 2006, Pang nailed his first world championship.

    At the Beijing Olympics, competing after female shooter Du Li lost the chance of a gold medal on the morning of Aug. 9, the young man impressed the audience and rivals with his composure.

    His first shot was not very good, with a score of 9.3. But he managed to improve the performance in later shots.

    "I can allow myself to make a mistake but after that I should do the things right," said Pang after the competition.

    "We are all very happy for him. He reminded me of my own past days," said Wang who attended six Olympics and won two gold medals and two silver ones.

    HAVEN FOR ABANDONED GIRL

    Shooting played a very important role in Guo Wenjun's life, not only as a career but also as a haven after her father abandoned her at the age of 15.

    Guo had lived with her father since her parents divorced. In April 1999, she was with her coach Huang Yanhua in a shooting contest away from her native city Xi'an, capital of northwestern Shaanxi Province, when her father called up the coach's wife and said he was going away and might not return soon.

    The father left the message, hoping Huang would treat Guo as his own daughter and give her a promising future. He has not reappeared since that day.

    Then the coach became her "father" and the city shooting team was home to her.

    Although she performed well as an underage shooter, Guo thought of giving up shooting when she grew up.

    In 2003 at the age of 19 she quit from the shooting team and found a job as a sales girl in a department store.

    "I knew she was confused about her life and future and needed some time to figure it out," Huang recalled. "But she had the gift."

    After a year of selling clothes in the shop, she returned to shooting.

    "She told me that many could be good salesmen but only a few were good shooters. She should fulfill herself through the thing that she did best," Huang said.

    Determined to follow the path of previous outstanding shooters, Guo gradually showed her talent and finally became an Olympic champion.

    "Shooting is not only about body but also heart. Guo is mentally strong. She could resist heavy pressure. She won the medal because of this," said Lu Wenhui, a sport school official in Xi'an who picked her up and recommended her to the city shooting team together with Huang when she was a 13-year-old middle school student.