(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-10 09:45

KUWAIT CITY - Chinese Zhang Penghui, world champion of men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol, surged from the third place to nail down an "unexpected" gold medal of the event at the 11th Asian Shooting Championships here on Sunday with 779.4 points.

China's Zhang Penghui aims during the men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol at the 11th Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait City December 9, 2007. [Xinhua]

The 30-year-old shooter 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.

In the four-set final, the champion of 2006 World Shooting Championships achieved a 50.4 in the first set. Despite a 47.5 point in the second set, he impressed audiences with the following two scores reported as 51.2 and 51.3, highest among all finalists.

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 didn'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.

In explaining his miss in the second set, Zhang noted that he got absent-minded for a while."I opened fire before the gun was raised to the proper place."

Sheng Haoming, Zhang's coach in the national shooting team, was satisfied with his recovery in the final. "He has always been confident in finals, " he said.

During the four World Cup competitions this year, Zhang got two gold and one silver. For twice he got the medals by overtaking from behind.

Talking about Liu, Sheng believed that his score in the final was "record low".

"This failure could be a lesson, which we need to prepare for the Olympics," he said.