Born shooter Wu Liuxi bears hope to appear in Athens

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, October 26, 2003

Born shooter Wu Liuxi bears hope to appear in Athens

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Wu Liuxi, a born shooter, displayed her patience to overshot world champions for the gold ofthe fiercely contested women's air rifle at the 5th City Games, but it may take her more time to win a place for the Athens Olympic Games.

Wu, 18, shot 400 points which equaled the world record in the preliminary round and scored a total of 503.9 points to take the women's air rifle title, beating two world champions Zhao Yinghui and Du Li at the 5th Chinese City Games. "There is pressure on every finalist. What I could do is to keep cool and concentrate onmyself, and I managed it," said Wu.

Yu Haijuan, an official in charge of the sport told Xinhua, "Wuis ambitious and has proved to be strong enough to compete in international games such as the Olympics."

Xu Haifeng, head coach of the Chinese shooting team praised Wu's performance in the games, but said that there are three to four powerful shooters at her level in China and around 20 worldwide, who have the ability to score 400 points in the preliminary round.

"Wu has become one of the shining stars in the games, but she will have to compete with her national teammates for a berth in Athens," Xu said.

Xu has formed a 57-shooter list including Wu Liuxi to prepare for the next year's Olympics. But the final list will not be decided until the last minute.

Wu became an amateur at 14 and only started her professional career last year. The young shooter snatched her first national gold of women's air rifle in the Urumchi leg of 2003 national shooting championships and listed first after the qualifiers of the City Games. The promising youngster, though junior to her national teammates, took the third place in national team rankingsafter a series of qualifications for Athens, only behind Du Li andZhao Yinghui, beating world record holder Gao Jing to the fourth.

"Wu can keep a cool head in the matches, which is the most important diathesis for a shooter." said her coach Rui Qing. "In aword, she is a born shooter."

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