Dissatisfying start casts shadow over Chinese dream for Olympic shooting medal spree

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Performances of the Chinese shooting squad on Saturday, first day of the Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup, could be disappointing to people who expect a golden medal spree in shooting, the event that granted China the first ever Olympic gold in history.

Ace shooters Du Li and Ren Jie, both world record holders, just picked up two bronzes in women's 10-meter air rifle and 10-meter air pistol, while some other hopeful athletes even failed to edge into the final.

In the first event, the gold fell into the pocket of Czechic markswoman Katerina Emmons, who was bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics and equaled the world record this time with 504.9 points.

Chalking up a same score of 399 points as Emmons in the qualification round, Du surged to the first place by starting with a 10.6 in the ten-shot final. However, she lost her normal firing rhythm and collected just a 9.8 in the second shot, while her 25-year-old Czechic counterpart stunned spectators with a 10.9.

Du then was outscored by Emmons in each shot until in the seventh, she got a 10.9 point as well. But the following 9.7 points extinguished people's hope for her turning the scale.

"Du Li is a talented shooter and I can't imagine anyone can do more than she did," said the excited champion.

Looking into the forthcoming Olympics, Emmons seemed cool-headed. "The fact that I win today doesn't mean I can win the Olympic medal," she said, "there are at least 10 can get that medal. I have good chance but as much as theirs."

Also listed as formidable rivals for Du are German shooter Sonja Pfeilschifter who collected 502.4 points as silver medalist, Kazakhstan shooter Olga Dovgun, who, although losing her nerve in the final, also notched up 399 points in the qualification round, and famous Russian athlete Lioubov Galkina.

"I feel satisfied with this result," said Galkina. "I am regaining my sharpness, but time is limited before the Olympic Games."

Two other Chinese shooters, Zhao Yinghui and Zhang Yi were shutout of the final with 393 each, while Yin Wen scored just 391 points in the MQS.

Situation was similar at the women's 10-meter air pistol event in the afternoon.

Sharing a qualification score with Chinese shooter Ren Jie, French shooter Stephanie Tirode, whose previous best was a bronze at the World Cup Atlanta Fort in 2002, made a good start in the ten-shot final with a 10.5, 0.9 points more than the latter.

She managed to enlarge the advantage in the following shots until, in the six shot, she scored a 8.3, when Ren got a 10.2.

Nightmare of the 33-year-old French shooter lingered on in the following three shots as she collected 9.9, 9.5 and 9.6, seeing her Chinese rival harvesting 10.7, 10.3 and 10.1.

Their luck exchanged when it came to the last shot.

Tirode got a decent 10.2 to finish 486.3 points.

The 28-year-old Ren, however, scored only 8.8 to collect a total of 485.1 points, which not only dragged her off the top of the podium, but pulled the shooter behind Hungarian shooter, the eighth finalist Zsofia Csonka, with a 0.3-point gap.

Another Chinese finalist Hu Jun, entering the final as the third with 385 points, finished as the seventh. Guo Wenjun, runner-up in the women's 25-meter pistol at the World Cup Finals last year, failed to edge into the final with 374 points.

Talking about the results, Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese national shooting squad, didn't seem too dissatisfied. "In fact, we hope to see foreign athletes showing their full capacity, so as to get ourselves prepared for the Olympics," he said.

But Chinese athletes definitely need more efforts.

"Maybe I am too strict to myself because I want to prove my ability in the final competition," Ren Jie said, recognizing the cause of the slip of her last shot as "I seemed to press myself too hard at that time."

"I think I need to improve my ability of pressure resistence," she said. "Maybe this will be the only chance for me to compete in the Olympic Games hosted by my own country. I will try my best," said Du Li, who took off her earplugs this time to adapt herself to the surroundings.