HONG KONG: Chinese sharpshooter Zhu Qinan, 2004 Olympic Game gold and 2008 Olympic silver medalist won the first gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Rifle competition for the Chinese squad in the 2009 East Asian Games yesterday.

Zhu shot 598 in the qualifications, 1 point ahead of his second-place Chinese teammate Liu Tianyou. Zhu also was off to a perfect start in the subsequent 10-shot finals. All of his first seven shots were above 10.5, which advanced him to a place among the finalists. The weaker eighth and last shots of 10.1 and 9.9 did not constitute any obstacle to securing the championship, since Zhu was so close to - 0.5 point away from - setting a new world record.

"I am not disappointed missing the chance at all, which demonstrates I still have potential for improvement," said Zhu, adding, "Given that I did not have systematic training for almost a month after the National Games, I am content with the result."

Yesterday was the last day of table-tennis competition in the Games. China, Hong Kong (China) and Japan shared the remaining five gold medals, in pursuit of which four matches were played between players from the same squad.

Four Chinese players occupied the table of the two singles finals. Yao Yan defeated Wen Jia 4-3 in Women's Singles. Xu Xin defeated Zhang Jike 4-2 in the Men's singles.

In the Men's Doubles, finalists of the Singles' match, Zhang and Xu paired up, 4-1 to defeat the Chinese Taipei pair Chiang Peng-Lung and Wu Chih-Chi and took the crown.

"We played out our own advantages, even though we lost the third games, when they made changes and we did not adapt to it immediately," said the Chinese pair.

Eight gold medals were split by Japan and China in swimming events last night.

Among the Chinese squad, Jiao Liuyang and Hong Wenwen ranked first and third, respectively, in the Women's 50m Butterfly. Liu Jing seized gold in the Women's 200m Individual Medley. Gao Chang snatched the gold medal in the Women's 50m Backstroke, while another Chinese swimmer, Zhao Jing, was 0.02 second behind, winning a silver. China also triumphed in the Women's 4*200m Freestyle Relay, followed by Hong Kong, which garnered a silver. Li Yunqi came in runner-up in the Men's 800m Freestyle. Zhou Jiawei and Shi Feng took the second and third places in Men's 50m Butterfly. Zhang Yu won a bronze medal in the Men's 200m Backstroke.

However, newly titled world champion in the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin received only a bronze, 3.22 seconds behind the champion, Japanese Okumura Yoshihiro, in the Men's 200m Freestyle last night.

"I feel sorry for the result today. But I was swimming through the World Championships, Asian Championships and National Games in the recent months, and I am burned out," said Zhang.

A Herculean effort by the Chinese also swept the gold in the weightlifting events yesterday. Long Qingquan, 2008 Olympic champion, claimed an easy victory in the Men's 56kg-category. His total lifted weight exceeded that of the runner-up Chinese Taipei player by 40 kg. Another Chinese, Yang Lian, also prevailed in the Women's 48kg-category weightlifting event.

(HK Edition 12/08/2009 page1)