Chinese make a clean sweep of day’s honours

Chinese shooters made a clean sweep of the medals on Day Nine of the Asian Shooting Championships here at the Lusail Shooting Complex yesterday.All the top three spots in the 25m Pistol women, 10m Running Target men and women including the team gold medals went to China.Beijing Olympic gold medallist Ying Chen had to get all her experience into play to beat her young counterparts for gold with a total of 793.5. The silver went to Jingjing Zhang with 793.1 and the bronze was claimed by Jing Yuan, who accumulated 791.5.“It was great to battle it out against the young girls. I’m very pleased with the win and it’s a good preparation considering, it is the Olympic year,” said Chen, who topped the qualifying with a score of 587. Chen was of the view that the future of shooting in China was bright as there is an abundance of talent in the youth that is coming up. “We managed the first three spots and the margin of victory was so close. It is clear that these young girls are good. They kept pushing me to the limit. The competition is really fierce from within and that’s what is good for the future. This tournament has been a perfect preparation keeping in mind the Olympics and now I know where I stand,” said Chen, the 2006 World Shooting Champion in 25m Air Pistol. Chen’s event also saw a delay in the finals after Kazakhstan protested against Korea’s Mi Jang Kim for putting her gun down during the qualifying round. However, video evidence was not conclusive enough and the result stood. The silver in the 25m Pistol team women went to Korea’s Mi Jang Kim, Mi Yun Gim and Kim Kyeongae of South Korea with a score of 1,737 and Kazakhstan’s Zauresh Baibussinova, Yuliya Drishlyuk and Galina Belyayeva won bronze with a total of 1,727.In the 10m Running target for women, Li Su of China defeated Yan Xue Li for gold, while the bronze went to Zeng Yang, who got the better of Kazakh Natalya Gurova. Su, along with Yang and Xue Li claimed the team gold in the same event, while the silver went to host Qatar’s Anisa Jama, Samsam Jama and Ali Hanan al-Haddad with a score of 921. The third place went to Kazakhs Gurova, Darya Bakriy and Veronika Skiba. The Chinese made their third whitewash of the day in the men’s 10m running event. Hong Xu edged out compatriot Jie Zhang 6:5 to win gold. The bronze went to Haibo Yang, who defeated Vuong Huu Ngo.Xu, Zhang and Yang went on to clinch the team gold with a total of 1,710. The silver was bagged by Kazakhs Bakhtiyar Ibrayev, Rassim Mologly and Andrey Gurov with a total of 1,678 while Vietnam’s Vuong Huu Ngo, Vu Hoang Tran and Cuong Manh Nguyen claimed bronze with a score of 1,632.