Chinese athlete Xu Kun has scooped the gold medal in men's 50-mter pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Milan.

The four points lead in the qualifying round saved the Chinese after making his crucial mistake of 6.5 at his opening shot in the final.

The constant back and forth between Xu and Slovakian Pavol Koppmade it to an exciting match.

Kopp, the first time ISSF World Cup finalist, took rank one at his seventh final shot of 10.7.

Despite Xu's anew poor ninth final shot of 8.5, Kopp's last tenth shot of 9.5 was enough to make up the great advantage of the Chinese shooter which he brought into the final.

Still Pavol Kopp won his first ISSF World Cup medal, in silver, as well as he obtained Slovakia's ticket to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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(CRI June 6, 2006)