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'Soft shooter' gets first Paralympic gold
ATHENS: He is average looking and a bit shy, but his shooting technic is never ordinary. Li Jianfei, a Paralympic shooting athlete from southwestern Chinese province Yunnan, won the first gold medal for China on Saturday, the first day of competition at the 12th Paralympic Games in Athens. Li was not the best during the qualification competition of men's air pistol SH1 in the Athens Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre in the suburbs of the Greek capital. Macedonian Vanco Karanfilov led him by two points with the total score of 568 points. However, in the final, Li took his chance when Karanfilov scored only 6.7 points in the first shot, with the gap shortened to 0.2 points. In the third shot, Li outperformed his opponents for the first time with a 10-point score. With three consecutive 10s, Li widened his leadership. It was calmness that secured Li's victory. After a not-so-good shot which scored 8.8 points in the 7th shot, Li calmed down and made adjustments in time. Although Karanfilov did quite well with his last two shots, the Chinese "soft killer" maintained his accuracy, firing in a slow, elegant manner. With the final shot fired, Li became the overall winner with a total score of 663.8 points, outperforming Karanfilov by 2.2 points. Australia's Hubert Auschnaiter gained the third place with 658.6 points. "I am satisfied with the outcome, not the score," Li told reporters after the victory, speaking softly and humbly. "I didn't think too much in the finals and just tried to do my best." Li said he only felt a bit of self-pride when China's national anthem was played and the national flag raised in honour of the champion. "His performance is very stable, which is his biggest advantage," said Chinese team manager Zhang Jinan. Li first participated in shooting in 1998 and two years later he grabbed a silver medal for China in the Sydney Paralympic Games. This year, China sent seven athletes to Paralympic shooting events, hoping to secure at least one medal. Li finally reached that goal after his female teammate Xiao Weidong finished fourth in the air rifle standing SH1 competition earlier. Wang Yunfeng won the country's first ever Paralympic judo gold medal at the 12th Paralympic Games yesterday. Wang beat Brazil's Euardo Amaral by an Ippon in the men's 73kg lightweight category final. |
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