Chinese sharpshooter Zhu Qinan seized the gold medal of the men's 10-meter air rifle after a hot pursuit with 700.8 points here at the Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup on Monday.

American shooter Matthew Emmons was edged to the second place with a narrow distance of only 0.1 points, while Indian Gagan Narang took the bronze with 700.3 points.

Starting with 597 points after the qualification round and ranked fifth, Zhu, the 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist and Olympic Record holder in the discipline, pulled up his socks to overtake by scoring nine of the ten shots above ten point in the final, leaving only a 9.9 at the fourth shot.

His arch-rival, the 27-year-old Emmons, the Athens Olympic champion in rifle prone who strided into the final with a leading 599 points in the qualification round, managed to maintain his advantage until the last shot, when he scored 10.1, outscored by Zhu with 0.3 point in the shot.

Always among the last two to open fire, the champion admitted that he had a difficult time in the competition.

"I was not in good shape lately," Zhu said. "I had an appendectomy on March 1, and resumed training on March 24. Both my technique and health are not as good as before."

Looking into the Olympic Games this August, Zhu hoped that he would not win so difficultly then. "There are still four months ahead and I will adjust condition," he said

Emmons said the silver medal was more than he expected.

"The score of 599 is my personal best in World Cups, although it wasn't my best final. It was a good sign that better events are coming up soon," he said.

When he was shooting, his wife, Katerina Emmons who just picked up a gold in women's 10-meter air rifle two days ago, said she "crossed fingers for him".

"He has problems with air rifle recently," said Katerina, adding that her husband was not going to compete in this discipline at the Olympic Games, while in this competition. "he didn't lose anything. He earned his medal," she said.

Also a slow shooter like Zhu, the American man noted that he didn't do well in the last shot. "It normally takes me more than 30 seconds for a shot, " he said. "But this time, the spectators react easily, so I fired faster (than Zhu) at the last shot."

In fact, reaction of spectators before all finalists finish their shots is also a headache for Zhu.

"We are the host for 2008 Olympic Games and there will be many spectators, but I can't cut off my ears then," Zhe joked, "I must have good control of myself."

Hungarian shooter, gold medalist at the 2003 World Cup Final Peter Sidi, shared a same score of 599 with Emmons in the qualification round but plunged to the fifth in the final.

World Record holder Thomas Farnik failed to advance to the final by scoring 596 in the qualification round.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2008)