China maintains supremacy in Asian shooting tourney
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