KUWAIT CITY, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Although Chinese shooting team racked up six of the eight gold medals in competitions at the 11th Asian Shooting Championships on Saturday, audiences may be more impressed by the persistence of two markswomen from other countries.
A debutant to the world final arena, Uzbekstan shooter Elena Kuznetsova made up for her misses at the beginning of women's 50-meter rifle three positions final to grasp gold of the event, with her score at 678.3 points.
The 25-year-old slim girl was ranked second after the qualification round, with her score, 579 points, one point behind Kazakstan Olga Dovgun and two points ahead of Chinese Du Li.
In the ten-shot final, Kuznetsova didn't do well in the first several shots. Neither did Dovgun. Whereas Du was chasing hotly with 10.4, 10.4, 10.7 and 10.4 points.
Kuznetsova restored her sharpness in the fifth shot to collect a highest of 10.8 points and surpassed Dovgun after the seventh shot.
However, a following 9.2 point in the eighth shot pulled her behind Du Li.
Dramatic scene occurred in the ninth shot, when Kuznetsova scored a decent 10.1, Du only got 9.8. This posed the duo in a draw.
In the important final shot, Kuznetsova got another 10.1, while Du collected a lowest 9.4 to end with a silver.
"The final is quite an ordeal for me," said the beaming girl afterwards, "although I didn't know the change of ranks and only learnt of my success from the gesture of my teammates outside the range."
In women's 10-meter air pistol event, South Korean Lee Ho Lim scored the highest 100.1 points in the final amid thunderous applauses to nail down the silver.
Lee, gold medalist in the 2005 World Cup Milan Fort when the 19-year-old brought back her country a quota place of the event in the 2008 Olympics, started with 384 points from the qualification round with which she was ranked fifth.
But the calm girl managed to surpass her rivals one by one by achieving two highest scores in the ten-shot final.
"I was not confident in the final and my hands were wet with sweat," said Chinese sharpshooter Guo Wenjun, champion of the event. "The South Korean shooter is really a formidable competitor."
"Before the last shot of the final, I raised my pistol for four times before opening fire." said Guo, who got a 9.7 in that shot. Fortunately, the five-point advantage from the qualification round promised her the gold, but the gap was shortened to 3.3 points at last.
In junior events, Chinese girls Sheng Jie and Li Peijing topped in 10-meter air pistol and 50-meter rifle three positions.
Sunday will see intense vie for golds in double trap and men's 25-meter pistol. Chinese team is crossing fingers for a quota place obtained from men's double trap.