TIANJIN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Dubbed China's mini Olympics, the 13th Chinese National Games have witnessed four world records of shooting shattered, and international star swimmer Sun Yang proved his dominance in the pool by grabbing his 100th gold medal on Thursday.
Li Jiahong of Heilongjiang and Liu Yukun of Shaanxi surpassed the world record in the men's 50m rifle prone, and five-time Olympian Tan Zongliang won the men's 10m air pistol on Wednesday, scoring 242.3 to surpass the current world mark by 0.7 points. Hebei youngster Yang Haoran surpassed the world record in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions during the qualification and nailed the gold medal later, and the world record of the women's 10m air rifle team event was also shattered by Zhejiang province on Thursday.
Gao Chang nailed a world record-equaling 594 points in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions qualifier on Tuesday.
Yang Haoran, just 21 years old, retained his National Games title in the men's 10m air rifle with the highest score of 248.9 points on Tuesday.
Olympic champion Yi Siling failed to qualify for the individual final on Thursday after the withdrawal of the 28-year-old from the 50m rifle 3 positions event on Tuesday due to her five-month pregnancy.
Beijing Olympic champion Pang Wei reaped his first National Games gold medal from the newly-introduced 10m air pistol mixed team event.
Pang, the men's 10m air pistol titlist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, partnered with Hebei teammate Zhao Xu to prevail over Team Henan's Zhou Ying and He Zhengyang in a tight final 7-6.
As the record-breaking shooting tournament concluded on Friday, the spotlight shifted to the swimming pool. Olympic and world champion Sun Yang claimed his 100th gold medal in his swimming career on Thursday evening, retaining the men's 400m freestyle title with a time of 3 minutes and 41.94 seconds, over 5 seconds faster than runner-up Ji Xinjie of Shandong.
Li Bingjie of Hebei clocked in four minutes and 1.75 seconds to dominate women's 400m freestyle, improving the Asian mark by 0.60 seconds and beating her national teammate and the PLA delegation's Zhang Yuhan to second place with a margin of nearly three seconds on Friday.
The National Games also saw a shift of generations, as Olympic champion Wei Qiuyue announced her retirement from volleyball on Monday, just one day after the opening ceremony.
On Monday evening, Wei's national teammates Hui Ruoqi, Zhang Changning and Gong Xiangyu led Jiangsu to their first top-podium finish at the quadrennial sports gala, beating Shanghai 3-0 in the final of the women's volleyball event.
The National Games drew a total of 12,721 athletes taking part in 417 events across 33 sports, plus 7,620 amateurs in 126 events of 19 mass programs.
In an unprecedented move, the event adapted the innovative concept of allowing all Chinese people the chance to participate in sports, reopening the door to amateur athletes after 30 years and allowing overseas Chinese athletes to compete as well.
Twenty-two overseas athletes of Chinese heritage applied for participation in the Tianjin Games. Eight of them reached the bar and were permitted to enter finals in equestrian, shooting, athletics and swimming.
China-born American Jay Shi, who was born in Tianjin in 1979 before immigrating to the United States when he was nine years old, became the first overseas athlete of Chinese heritage to make an appearance at the National Games, by starting in the men's 50m pistol competition at the Tuanbo Lake Shooting Range on Monday.
The 13th National Games, which officially opened last Sunday, will run through to Sept. 8 with 130 finals in 12 Olympic sports as well as in 17 out of 19 popular programs that were completed ahead of the opening ceremony.
