Three veterans from China, Russia and the United States respectively shared the three gold medal on offer at the Shooting World Cup Final here Friday, while one world record collapsed and one equaled.

27-year-old Chen Ying from China became the youngest winner of the day when she was crowned in the women's 25m pistol.

The winner of the World Cup Final 2003 collected 587 points in the qualification round, leading fellow rookie Fei Fengji and Gundegmaa Otryad of Mongolia one full point.

"I did well in the precision stage, but made a few small mistakes at the last series of the rapid stage," said Chen, competing in her fourth World Cup Final.

Hold backing a fierce challenge from 23-year-old Fei, winner of the World Championships junior 2002, Chen took the gold medal with a total score of 790.9.

Fei was second with 790.3 while Otryad, who shot the best qualification of 592 this season finished third on 789.7.

46-year-old Sergei Alifirenko set a new world record of 589 points in the qualification round of the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event, surpassing the previous best of 588 set by triple Olympic gold medalist Ralf Schumann at the World Cup Milan in June.

"The secret is training, training and training," said Alifirenko of his new world record.

Marching into the final with an advantage of five full points, the Russian veteran produced a breathtaking final round by shooting three poor series.

With a last serie of 50.1 points on five shots, the winner of the Olympic Games 2000 held on his position finally and claimed the title with a total score of 783.9, leading second placed Martin Behrendt of German by three tenth of a point.

"Well, that is my style," said Alifirenko. "It was good for broadcasting, isn't it?"

Schumann was third on 782.4 points.

With an excellent final of 104.4 points, Eric Uptagrafft, 39, from the United States could therefore make up the two-point difference with the joint world record holder Sergei Martynov from Belarus and won the gold medal with a total of 702.4 points.

"I think my experience made me today's winner," said Uptagrafft.

Martynov and Mario Knoegler from Austria was second and third respectively.

Source: Xinhua