INCHEON: China swept eight of the 10 gold medals fought for in the Asian Games shooting yesterday, breaking one world record even as revised rules handed them and South Korea new world marks.
Zhao Shengbo, Lan Xing and Liu Gang shot a combined score of 1,876 in the men’s 50m rifle prone, surpassing the previous record of 1,873.6 by the French team of Cyril Graff, Michael Halluin and Valerian Sauveplane at the European championships in Croatia last year.
The win helped China avenge their loss to South Korea in the same event at the previous Asiad in Guangzhou four years ago.
The Koreans won the silver with 1,869 points and Kazakhstan retained the bronze with 1,859.
Zhao then triumphed in the individual eight-man final that featured the entire Chinese and Korean team, but it was Muhammad Nasir Khan of Malaysia who stole the show with a silver.
Khan ended just 0.5 points behind Zhao’s score of 198.6 in a keenly-fought last round.
Park Bong-Duk of South Korea claimed the bronze.
Khan said he was delighted to win his first medal in an international event.
“With such good shooters around, one can only hope for the best and that is what happened today,” he said.
“I am on a high like never before. Maybe this is just the start I need to boost my career.”
South Korea’s Kim Mi-Jin found herself in the list of world record holders after winning the women’s double trap with 110 points, two more than second-placed Zhang Yafei of China.
The record came automatically to Kim under new rules set by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) which require more than 15 competitors from at least five countries to make it a world-level event.
The Asian Games, where 19 trap shooters from six countries took part, was the first competition to be covered by the rules that were introduced last year.
Kim was not even aware of being handed a world record as she ran and hugged her four-year-old son, Son-Yeon-Ho, after the event.
“My son gave me a drawing on which it was written ‘Go Mom. Asian Games!,” she said. “I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ to him for being a good boy while I was training.”
China’s women’s double trap team were also awarded a world record under the same rules after they finished with 315 points, one ahead of the hosts. India took the bronze.
The Chinese won both the team and individual gold medals in the 25m standard pistol with Ding Feng’s 577.15 points in the final proving too much for silver-medallist Kim Jong-Hong of South Korea.
With the men’s 10m running team gold in the bag, China also clinched the individual title through Zhai Yujiya. Jo Yong-Chol of North Korea took the silver and Bakhtiyar Ibrayev of Kazakhstan claimed the bronze.
In a well-contested men’s double trap team final, Qatar, China and Kuwait finished with 404 points each but an aggregate of 84 points in the fifth round handed the Qataris the gold.
China’s fifth round score was 83 and Kuwait had 81.
However, Hu Binyuan won the individual title beating Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait in the final. Juma Al Makhtoum of the United Arab Emirates earned a bronze.
With 30 titles decided so far in the 44-event shooting competition, China have won 18 golds and South Korea seven. The rest have been shared by India, Iran, Mongolia, Qatar and Kazakhstan. REUTERS
