By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-16 11:39

The pressures of a home advantage can be costly in the final trigger pull of a shooting match.

Chinese shooters have experienced the highs and lows of that final shot at the ongoing Shooting World Cup in Beijing, and their inconsistency has raised uncertainty about their presumed home-venue advantage at August's Beijing Games.

Zhu Qinan competes in the men's air rifle at the Shooting World Cup in Beijing on Monday. [Xinhua]

"Fighting on home soil may be an advantage in other sports, but in shooting, we call it the 'home-venue curse'," joked Chinese national shooting team head coach Wang Yifu on the sidelines of the event.

The "curse" hit the Chinese camp on Saturday, the first day of competition. Leading by 0.2 points heading into the final shot, world record holder Ren Jie fired an awful 8.8-point shot, which cost her the women's air pistol gold after France's Stephanie Tirode fired a 10.2-point shot to take to top prize.

Yesterday, Lin Zhongzai also had a disastrous 7.7-point final shot, but luckily held on to the gold after accumulating a huge advantage with her previous shots.

"Past Olympics have taught us that host shooters often cannot perform normally due to pressures and disturbances. We are now working on it and trying to break the curse," said Wang, who also lost a gold medal in men's pistol at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics due to his sub-7-point final shot.

There were some positive examples of final shots at the World Cup as Athens Olympic champion Zhu Qinan overcame a 0.2-point deficit on his final shot to win the gold in men's air rifle on Monday. It was China's first gold of the tournament, which is an Olympic test event.

The 23-year-old said his fighting spirit and positive attitude were the secrets behind his success.

"I was very nervous and tired in the final competition," Zhu said after the match. "But thanks to my fighting spirit, I won the match."

The defending champion finished fifth in the qualifications with a score of 597, two points off the top two finishers, Peter Sidi from Hungary and Matthew Emmons of the United States.

Zhu faced a big challenge in overcoming the deficit in the 10-shot final round, but he never worried.

"After the qualifications, I didn't think too much about my results," he said. "During the one-and-a-half-hour break, I was in my room watching the CCTV sports channel."

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