China makes clean sweep in shooting opener

JAKARTA (JP): China swept all the four gold medals on offer yesterday at the 8th Asian Shooting Championships at the Senayan shooting range.

The Chinese dominated opening day in the medals race in the women's team air rifle, the women's individual air rifle, the men's team free pistol and the men's individual free pistol event.

China's trio of Chen Muhua, Xu Yanhua and Liu Shibin scored a total of 1,180 to win the women's air rifle team, breaking the old Asian mark of 1,172 produced by another Chinese trio in the previous Asian championships in Beijing in 1991.

In the women's air rifle individual, world champion Chen Muhua yesterday ranked first with 396 after 4x10 shots (99-99-98-100), one point higher than the Asian record of 395 set by teammate Xu Yanhua at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games.

Second to Chen was Xu Yanhua whose 392 tied the score of her third-ranked teammate Liu Shibin.

Indonesia's Aurora Marris sparked a flame of hope when she scored 392 in the qualifying round to tie with China's Liu Shibin and Xu Yanhua and South Korea's Kim Jungmi, all of whom were second behind Chen's 396.

In the final, Aurora tied the score again, this time with Minamoto Yoko of Japan and Liu. But in the shoot off Aurora's mark was beaten by the two. The 26-year-old Indonesian had to be content with seventh place.

"I was very nervous during the shoot-off. I was not mentally prepared for it," said Aurora, an employee at RCTI, a private television channel.

Wang Yifu contributed another gold medal to China in the men's individual free pistol with a total score of 568 after 6x10 shots (96-92-99-93-92-96). Wang and teammates Xu Dan and Wu Hui together added another gold medal to China's collection by scoring a total of 1,949 in the men's free pistol team event.

"My best is 573 I scored in the 1979 National Games in Beijing," said Wang.

The 35-year-old champion said he has been champion for 18 years now in the men's free pistol and the men's air pistol. This means that in a given championship his rank is usually first to third.

In last year's Asian Games in Hiroshima, Wang won the gold medal in the men's individual 10m air pistol 60 shots event, but finished second behind Japan's Nakashige Masaru in the men's individual 50m free pistol 60 shots event.

In the UIT World Cup, which was held from June 10 to June 16 in Munich, Germany, Wang finished third in the men's free pistol but finished 11th in the men's air pistol. UIT is the world shooting governing body.

Wang became a world champion in the men's air pistol at a championships match in Germany a few years ago with a total score of 588.

It took Wang only two months to prepare himself for this Asian meet. He attributes his victories to what he calls "unique" training. "It is unique because I train using rudimentary, rustic equipment." Hence, his winning recipe: "Be different if you want to differ yourself from others by producing exceptionally outstanding results." (arf)