Zhu Qinan wins men's 10m air rifle final of the Athens Olympic Games, Aug 16, 2004. [Xinhua]

Rising star

Zhu was born to an impoverished peasant family in Wenzhou. In 1992, his father borrowed 2,000 yuan to send him to a local primary school. Then the parents went to work in the prosperous Guangdong Province, leaving their son to his grandma.

Zhu started the practice of shooting at the age of 15, when coach You Xiuxia selected him. Couldn't stand the dull trainings, some students quit, but Zhu persisted.

At first, it had been a secret between the boy and his grandma, for fear that his parents would interfere, until half a year later.

On one Saturday night, it was nine o'clock but Zhu still didn't return home. His mother became worried.

"Where did he go?" asked Xie Aifang.

"He went to practice shooting," replied the granny offhandedly.

Of course what awaited the boy was interrogation. But the determined son successfully persuaded his mother to let him carry on. Later, he was sent to sports school.

"Since you gave me this chance, I would never let you down," he promised.

Zhu Qinan impressed his coach with stability and carefulness.

"He was born to be a shooter," said Zhu Xiaobo, a coach with the Zhejiang provincial shooting team who picked up the boy at the end of 2001.

The coach was right.

Soon the fledging shooter went into people's sight by winning from national competitions to international ones.

At the Athens Olympic Games, the newcomer emerged as a dark horse. The picture maybe still in many people's mind, in which the 20-year-old with brush cut turned around and pointed at his nose when his coach sitting behind told him of his victory.