The Beijing Shooting Range Hall was seethed again on Sunday, about one month after the first Olympic gold was decided.
Almost all the seats in both the qualification and final halls were taken up, as hundreds of excited spectators witnessed the birth of first Beijing Paralympic gold medal and new world record.
The first gold, the one in women's 10-meter air rifle standing, was seized by Slovakian shooter Veronika Vadovicova, who collected 494.8 points with a distant lead from the silver and bronze medalists.
Impressing spectators with her stable performance in the qualification round, Vadovicova, gold medalist in 50-meter sport rifle three positions at the 2006 World Championships, topped the list of eight finalists with 392 points, or one point below the Paralympic record.
In the 10-shot final, the 25-year-old on a wheelchair further pulled away from her rivals by scoring all of the first nine shots above 10, including a highest score of 10.8 in the fourth shot.
Before the last shot, she had already enjoyed a comfortable lead of 5.2 points.
Although she finished with 9.5, the gold medal had already fell into her pockets.
"I think it was good though it was my lowest-scored shot in the final," said the joyful champion, who has attended the Paralympics twice before the Beijing tour.
In the event of men's 10-meter air pistol, Russian left-handed marksman Valeriy Ponomarenko, whose right arm was gone, improved the world records both in the qualification and the total by a staggering 6 and 2.6 points.
"I have prepared carefully for three years," said the father of two daughters, "I made a lot of efforts and it made me get the result."
"I never thought that I would be the champion as I did very bad in my training yesterday. However, I attended the Opening Ceremony and it excited me. This may have contributed to my success today," added the 38-year-old.