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China hit bulls-eye in Asian Games shooting
2006-12-03
Favourites China has won all six gold medals on offer on the opening day of the Asian Games shooting, the battle confined mainly amongst themselves at the expense of their hapless rivals. World number seven Liu Tianyou stunned team-mate and world champion Zhu Qinan to win the men's 10m Air Rifle individual gold medal at the Lusail ranges on the outskirts of the Qatari capital on Saturday. The Chinese won the team and individual events in all the three categories contested in the day - the men's and women's 10m Air Rifle and the women's Trap - without facing any resistence. Liu and Zhu made it a 1-2 in the 10m Air Rifle and South Korean Yu Jae-Chul won the bronze medal ahead of another Chinese Li Jie. World champion Li Du showed why she is unmatched in the women's 10m Air Rifle event by taking the gold ahead of team-mate and world number three Zhao Yinghui. Wu Liuxi finished third, but the bronze medal was awarded to fourth-placed Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan because Asian Games shooting rules stipulate that only two athletes from one country can win medals in one event. Another world number one Li Chen won the women's Trap individual event with a tally of 89 points, nine more than the joint 80 scored by team-mate Zhu Mei and Lin Yi Chun of Taiwan. Zhu took the silver on the tie-breaker while South Korea's Lee Bo Na, a gold medal contender after winning two medals at the Athens Olympics, finished a disappointing 11th with 60 points. "The wind created a problem but I had prepared for that well over the last two days," said Li. "It is nice to end the day with both the team and individual golds." In the team event, Li and her compatriots scored 195 points while North Korea won the silver with 186 points and South Korea the bronze with 174 points. China earlier had the honour of winning the first gold medal of these Asian Games when they claimed the men's 10m Air Rifle team event. South Korea won the silver and India bagged the bronze after the end of individual qualification rounds which decided the winner of the team event. The Chinese trio of Liu, Li Jie and Zhu finished with 1,786 points, 11 more than the second-placed Korean team of Yu Jae-Chung, Chae Kean-Bae and Kim Hye-Sung. India, missing World Cup champion Abhinav Bindra through a back injury, finished just one point behind the Koreans on 1,776 points. Gagan Narang shot 595 points in his six rounds and Padinchare Raghunath came in with 592, but rookie Navanath Faratade managed only 589 to deny the Indians a silver. "Abhinav's absence made a big difference but I am not blaming Navanath," Indian coach Sunny Thomas told AFP. "It is his first major event and he was a bit nervous. He is human. Anyone can have a bad day." The Chinese trio of Li, Zhao and Wu easily wrapped up the women's 10m Air Rifle team event with a score of 1,192 points. Singapore, who won the silver ahead of India, finished nine points behind China on 1,183 points. The Indian team of Avneet Sidhu, Tejaswini Sawant and Suma Shirur managed 1,181 points in an event they were expected to match the Chinese closely.
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