(Beijing, April 14) - Zhu Qinan (CHN) won the men's 10m air rifle event with the total score of 700.8 point in the Beijing Shooting Range Hall on Monday.

The Athens 2004 Olympic champion is the first Chinese winner during this "Good Luck Beijing" ISSF World Cup 2008. Only 0.1 point behind on second place was Matthew Emmons (USA). Third was Gagan Narang (IND) with 700.3 points.

In a really exciting final Zhu came up from the 5th position after the qualification, two points behind the winner Peter Sidi (HUN). In a tremendeous head-to-head race Zhu came closer and closer to Emmons who took the lead in the first shot. After the 7th shot Zhu was 0.7 point behind the US shooter. Then with the next shot Zhu came up to only 0.2 point behind the leader. In the 9th shot both were equal with a 10.2. Finally the air was fibrating when Zhu and Emmons were the last two competitors to give the 10th shot: Emmons did a 10.1 and some seconds later Zhu did a 10.4 and won this fantastic final.

Zhu, 23, went as the favourite into this event. But in the qualification he didn't do as wella as expected with 597 point only. He had only 99 point in the first and last two series. Much better did it Peter Sidi (HUN) the current leader of World Ranking. He was only one point below the maximum of 600 points due to a 9 in the third of six series with 10 shot each.

Emmons, 27, went into the final with 599 point as well. The huaband of women's 10m air rifle competition winner Katerina Emmons (CZE) did a very good final with only two shot below 10 (9.7 and 9.9). But in the end the 7th of the World Cup Final in Bangkok was beaten by the really strong shooting Zhu.

Narang, 24,reached the final with 597 points and started little nervous with a 9.8 in the first round. Then the 2005 Asian Champion improved a lot with a brillant 10.9 in round 4 of the final. With the last shot (10.6) he pushed the current third ranked Konstantin Prikhodtchenko (RUS) , 4th at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, from the podium. The Russian had a 10.0 and Narang a 10.6 with the last rifle.

Not in the final among other competitors was the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Jozef Gonci (SVK). He missed the final of the top eight shooters only due to a not good enough last series in the qualification. The bronze medallist of the 2008 European Championships had 596 points in the qualification and got on 10th place in the end.