While Chinese shooter Qu Ridong pocketed the last gold of Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup, one of men's skeet, spectators let out a sigh of relief. China, with three gold medals and three bronzes, was on top of both the medal list and gold medal list in the nine-day event.
The last day saw heavy rain soaking the outdoor shooting range, when the 40-year-old Chinese shooter strode into the final sharing a same qualification score of 120 with Russian shooter Konstantin Tsuranov and Italian Andrea Filippetti.
The trio, one point behind American marksman, World Record holder Vincent Hancock, pursued neck and neck until after the sixth shot, the 19-year-old teenage shooter lapsed twice and lost his advantage.
Tsuranov who had few appearance in international events, missed the 13th target, and soon Qu missed the 16th.
Filippetti, with some experiences in world cups but no medals, however, failed to hold his nerve and let go of the 18th bird, returning to the same line with his two rivals.
Champion of the 2006 World Cup Qingyuan fort, Qu then maintained his sharpness to the last minute, registering a highest final round point of 14 hits and an overall 144 hits.
The gold medalist attributed the victory to his home court advantage. "I have my motherland and all the thousands of patriotic spectators behind," he said, "I have more motivation than pressure."
Although a little "surprised", he said the medal didn't mean much to him, "even though it is the medal before the Olympics," he said.
Talking about his competitors, the modest shooter said, "they had this and that mistakes, which was not common in previous World Cups and World Championships."
"The overall competitive edge of China's shotgun team is comparatively weak," he said, " this time we have got three gold medals. It is possible for us to gain four gold medals in the Olympic shotgun event, one or two at least."
As for himself, Qu added, "I just hope this is a good start and brings me good luck."
Sun Shengwei, coach of Chinese shotgun coach, was satisfied with the result. "In fact we only expect to get a gold in women's skeet. It is rare for us to achieve three gold medals in the World Cup shotgun events." The other two gold medals were won by markswomen Wei Ning and Gao E in women 's skeet and women's trap.
While Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese national shooting squad, remained more cautious.
"From this competition, we can see than many foreign athletes are highly competitive and half of the Chinese shooters failed to enter the finals, " he said, "situation is grim for us to snatch more medals at the upcoming Olympic Games. After all, shooting is a sport with more uncertainty."
Another gold medal on Sunday, the one in men's 50-meter rifle three positions won by Frenchman Josselin Henry, lifted his nation to the second place of the gold medalist, surpassing Russia.
Toping with 1173 points from the qualification round and a two-point cushion from 40-year-old Ukrainian Jury Sukhorukov, Henry, who had participated several world cups without desirable scores, led at the beginning of the final in the first five shots.
In the sixth shot, the 26-year-old French shooter achieved just 8.9 point and was outperformed by Sukhorukov, who had a silver in the discipline in the 2001 Milan World Cup, with a 10.6.
When it came to the decisive last shot, the Ukrainian got a 9.1. In the attention of all spectators, Henry collected a decisive 10.5, which enabled him to mount the top of podium.
"It's my first world cup victory. It's a big win. I am really excited," said the champion.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2008)