China's teen hot shot ties world record

Zhai Yujia laughs as he takes questions from the media after winning the men's 10m running target event at the Asian Games in Guangzhou Nov 16, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Guangzhou - China has a new top gun.

In a stunning performance at the Aoti Shooting Range on Tuesday, 17-year-old Zhai Yujia equaled the world record of 590 points en route to capturing the gold medal in the men's 10m running target event at the Asian Games.

Zhai also broke the Asian record set by his coach, double Olympic gold medalist Yang Ling, at the 2002 Lahti World Shooting Championships.

Jo Yong-chol from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) won silver with 572 points, while Jeong You-jin from the Republic of Korea took the bronze medal.

"I can attribute the result to the instruction of my coach and to my efforts," said Zhai, adding Yang has made a big impact on his training.

"He was watching me in the shooting hall, and his presence encouraged me a lot."

Contrary to his star pupil's prominence, mentor Yang, the 1996 and 2000 Olympic champion, missed the entire target in the second series of the slow shoot.

"Scoring zero point is just an accident. I got distracted when I raised my gun," said Yang, who was competing for the first time in several months.

Thanks to Zhai's effort, Yang won a team gold that was decided by combining results of the two shooters from one NOC.

"It doesn't matter if it is a big or small competition, once I started thinking of full points, I get nervous," said Yang.

After winning the men's 10m running target in Atlanta and Sydney, Yang missed the chance to triple his title at the 2004 Athens Olympics due to injury.

"Maybe I will not continue to shoot anymore," said the 38-year-old Yang. "I will change my focus to training young shooters. I can teach them how to prepare, how to shoot and how to think, based on my experience."

After taking over as Zhai's coach more than six months ago, Yang is quite optimistic about the teenager's shooting future.

"I hope I can help Zhai to become the world champion, but constrained by the moving target event, it's a little harder for us," he said.

China Daily