Chinese Zhu defends World Cup title in men's 10-meter air rifle

Zhu Qi'nan in action. (Photo credit: sportsphoto.cn)

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese sharpshooter Zhu Qinan seized the gold medal of the men's 10-meter air rifle after a hot pursuit with 700.8 points at the Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup on Monday.

American shooter Matthew Emmons was edged to the second place with a narrow distance of only 0.1 points, while Indian Gagan Narang took the bronze with 700.3 points.

Starting with 597 points after the qualification round and ranked fifth, Zhu, the 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist and Olympic record holder in the discipline, proved his capacity by scoring nine of the ten shots above ten point in the final, leaving only a 9.9 at the fourth shot.

Emmons, 27, the Athens Olympic champion in rifle prone who strode into the final with 599 points in the qualification round, managed to maintain his advantage at the top until the last shot, when he scored 10.1, outscored by Zhu with 0.3 point in the shot.

Hungarian shooter, gold medalist at the 2003 World Cup Final, Peter Sidi, was ranked No.1 in the qualification round but plunged to the fifth in the final.

World record holder Thomas Farnik failed to advance to the final by scoring 596 in the qualification round.