Pang Wei, a Chinese Olympic debutant, nailed down gold medal in men's 10-meter air pistol event with 688.2 points at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall on Saturday.

Marched into the final with a leading 586 points, the 22-year-old from north China's Hebei province had a two-point margin from the co-second finalists, Jin Jong Oh from South Korea and Kim Jong Su from DPR Korea.

Despite a not-so-good start of 9.3 points, Pang impressed people with his steady performance and scored the following eight shots all above 10, including two 10.7 that aroused cheers from spectators.

After the ninth shot, he has already spanned his distance from the second-placer Jin, silver medalist at the Athens Olympics in 50m pistol, to 4.2 points.

Although he got another 9.3 as the last shot, his position was unshakable.

"I am so excited and I just want to go home," said the quiet Pang.

Talking about his success, Pang said, "I did what I should do."

Apparently also joyous, Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese shooting squad who holds the Olympic record in the discipline, took a group photo with Pang.

"It is not easy to train a good athlete," he said, "we need more support from people and, in days to come, we will give you more unexpected pleasure."

Kim fell to the third after his first shot and then to the fourth after the eighth shot. But he managed to hold his nerves and surpass American shooter Jason Turner again.

It was interesting that at the Athens Olympics, Kim was bronze medalist in 50m pistol event. This time, positions of him and Jin were the same as in that event four years ago.

A shoot-off was held after the final to decide fourth and fifth from American shooters Turner and Brian Beaman.

Turner scored 10.5, while his teammate notched up 10.3.

In fact, qualification score of Turner was two points higher than Beaman and the latter did better in the final.

But all is well that ends well. Turner finished as the fourth and Beaman the fifth.

Another Chinese shooter Tan Zongliang and Russian veteran shooter Mikhail Nestruev finished 11th and 29th in the qualification round, failing to enter the final.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)