KUWAIT CITY -- Like wandering in his own warehouse, Chinese shooting team enwraped 39 gold medals at the eight-day Asian Shooting Championships concluded on Wednesday, pulling far away from their counterparts like India, South Korea, DPR Korea and Kazakhstan who finished with less than 10 golds.

However, the gold spree didn't ease anxiety of team leaders.

"In some events we have traditional advantages, but the final scores this time are not so satisfactory," said Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese national shooting team after the championships.

One example is men's 10-meter air pistol, in which Asiad gold medalist Tan Zongliang was crowned again with 687.3 points on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old Tan, who was also champion of the men's 50-meter pistol in the World Shooting Championships last year, led in the qualification round with 586 points and finished with 687.3 points.

"This score could at best ensure him a bronze in the Olympics," Wang said. "During the last two sessions of Olympic Games, winners of this event both achieved some 590 points in the qualification round."

Wang himself held the Olympic record of men's 10-meter air pistol, which stood at 690.0 points, including 590 points in the qualification round.

After all, Tan's final score is passable. But in men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol, the final score of winner Zhang Penghui saw a huge gap with the world record held by German marksman Ralf Schumann.

The 30-year-old Zhang didn't do well in the first part of qualification round. Due to the influence of strong wind, he scored only 286 points.

Although he managed to edge into the final, Zhang's qualification score, 579, was two points behind Malaysian marksman Hasli lzwan Amir Hasan and four points behind his teammate Liu Zhongsheng.

Out of his expectation, Amir Hasan failed to keep his momentum in the final and collected only 195.6 points to bring back a silver. Liu was worse, chalking up a startling 189.8 to surrender his medal to South Korean Cha Sangjun, who got the bronze with 773.0 points.

"I hadn't thought that I could catch up," said Zhang after the competition. "With such a bad start, I just wished to do my best in the final."

Zhang described his feeling after the performance on Saturday as "dumbfounded". "I fixed all my attention on the wind, neglecting my own action," he said.

Not everyone has such fortune as Zhang. Olympic champion Zhu Qinan, Doha Asian Games gold medalist Liu Tianyou and up-and-coming shooter Cao Yifei must have known it well as even the most glitzy lineup of the trio failed to secure a crown in men's 10-meter air rifle, in which Zhu held the world record.

Loss of women's skeet is another blow to the Chinese ace team made up by Barcelona Olympic Champion Zhang Shan, Athens Olympic Games runner-up Wei Ning and 2006 Asian Shotgun Championships gold medalist Yu Xiumin, who surrendered all the three medals to athletes from DPR Korea and Thailand.

Maybe the best comfort to the team is acquisition of another two Olympic quota places, which Wang Yifu recognized as the "biggest harvest of the Chinese squad" this time, bringing the number of China's Olympic shooting berths to 26.

One ticket was snatched by Chinese young shooter, 22-year-old Pan Qiang who captured the gold medal of men's double trap with 189 hits, beating his rival with a slim advantage on Sunday.

"Finally we got this quota place. It has been almost in our reach for several times," said Sun Shengwei, coach in the Chinese national shooting team.

The first quota place of the event was acquired by Chinese shooter Hu Binyuan in the World Cup Surl Fort. "This quota place could give us more chance of winning," he said. One day later, world champion Jia Zhanbo bestowed his country with another Olympic ticket in men's 50-meter rifle prone.

"Getting this quota place is important for China's improvement in the discipline of men's 50-meter rifle prone," said Wang Yifu after the event.

Talking about the contestants, Wang noted that they had had a difficult time due to long and tiring competitions and harsh weather.

"From this championships, we got a clearer picture of our rivals' capacity and our own problems," he said. "Drawing from this lesson, we would get better prepared for the Beijing Olympics."