Kazakhstan Celebrates First Asiad Shooting Gold

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, October 05, 2002

Kazakhstan Celebrates First Asiad Shooting Gold

Sergey Belyaev of Kazakhstan clinched his country's first gold medal, the seventh on overall medal tally, at the 2002 Asian Games when he won the Men's 50 meter prone rifle event here on Saturday.

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Sergey Belyaev of Kazakhstan clinched his country's first gold medal, the seventh on overall medal tally, at the 2002 Asian Games when he won the Men's 50 meter prone rifle event here on Saturday.

Turkmenistan's Igor Pirekeev won silver with Yao Ye of China taking bronze.

Sergey overcame a one points deficit to win the gold with 700.3points and beat the pre-final top shooter Igor in the shoot-off. Sergey shot 10.7 in the shoot-off, beating Igor's 10.4.

"I am very pleased that I has won the gold medal. That's the first one for Kazakhstan in the Asian Games.

"Igor is a very good shooter, but so do I. I did even better in the finals, especially in the shoot-off." said Sergey after the tournament which was held at the Changwon International Shooting Range, which located 62 kilometers from Busan, the host city of Asian Games.

"But I was still very tense even though I thought I was doing very well."

For the 42-year-old, who won the silver medal at Shooting WorldCup at Atlanta 1999, the gold represented a happy family life.

"I contributes the gold medal to my wife Galina, she encouraged me quite a lot during these days in Busan." said Sergey.

China's Yao, who listed fourth after the qualification, performed well in the final and defeated South Korean rival Kang Seung-kyun to grab the bronze medal with 697.8.

"I was not affected by our poor results in the qualification. I performed well in the finals, but I think I can do better. " said Yao.

The South Korean trio claimed the team's gold medal of the event with 1,782 points early today, which is the second one for the host in shooting, while China and Kazakhstan both scored 1,780,all broke the former Asia record of 1,779. China barely edged the Kazakhstan with a better set scores.

"It is a pity to win the silver, but China do not have high-level shooters in this event." said Xu Haifeng, head coach of the Chinese team, "We have estimated that before the games."

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