China maintains supremacy in Asian shooting tourney

JAKARTA (JP): Xiau Jun inspired China's golden triple as the defending champion team prepared a victory celebration at the eighth Asian Shooting Championships here yesterday.

After the fifth day of competition, China looked unchallenged to extend its reign with a belting medal haul of 19 golds, 11 silvers and six bronzes. Xiau gave his team two of its three golds in the running target.

With just two days and 10 gold medals remaining, China will leave its closest rivals South Korea, Japan and the region's other shooting powerhouses to battle tooth and nail for second place.

India stole a little thunder when its men's standard pistol shooter, Jaspal Rana, denied China of a clean sweep. It was India's first gold in the Oct. 2 to Oct. 9 meet, but it was enough to shoot the South Asian team into sixth place on the provisional standings.

Xiau, who joined the Chinese winning trio in the world championships in Milan, Italy last year, fought off nerves to take the individual running target crown. Paired with teammate Qi Huanyong in the final eighth round, Xiau managed only to shoot sub-par 93.9 points.

Qi also failed to do his best, despite his score of 96.6 in the duel. Xiau, who topped the qualifying round standings with a total of 577, took the gold with just a 0.3-margin against Qi.

"I was too nervous since it was my first appearance in a final of the Asia Championship," said the 23-year-old student of Changdu Sports Institute. "I'm used to shooting from 50 meters, not from such a close range," he added.

A running target shooter in the championship fired from just 10 meters.

"But I believe there is time to improve myself before going to the Olympic Games next year," said Xiau, a native of the giant pandas' habitat, Shi Chuan.

China completed its domination in the running target when Liu Bichu took the individual bronze. The Chinese trio compiled 1,723 points to win the team event, allowing Kazakhstan and South Korea to secure the silver and the bronze respectively.

Chinese coach Chai Xienxiang, however, played down his trainee's clean sweep. "Winning the gold is not our target. We are seeking Olympic golds in Atlanta next year," he said.

Chai did not bring his ace, Yang Ning, winner of the World Cup in Munich, Germany last year. "We have a lot of good shooters who have to undergo selection each time we go to an international event," he said to reason Yang's absence.

The men's standard pistol event saw an equal battle, pitting India's Rana and Meng Gang of China. Rana slightly bettered Asian Games bronze medalist Meng in the second round to finish first with only one-point difference. Rana shot 576, leaving the meet record of 578 intact.

The bronze went to South Korea's Asian Games silver medalist Park Byung-taek.

China, however, made amends for the upset loss in the team event as Meng, Wang Runxi and Wang Yifu totaled 1,706 points for the team gold. Uzbekistan finished second in 1,703, ahead of South Korea. (amd)

Medals tally

G S B China 19 11 6 South Korea 4 4 8 Japan 2 4 6 Kazakhstan 1 2 1 Mongolia 1 2 0 India 1 1 2 Kyrgyztan 0 2 0 Uzbekistan 0 1 0 Thailand 0 1 0 Indonesia 0 0 1 Vietnam 0 0 1 Chinese Taipei 0 0 1 Iran 0 0 1 Iraq 0 0 1