Beijing Olympic shooting champ Pang Wei nails 1st National Games gold

Beijing Olympic champion Pang Wei reaped his first National Games gold medal from the newly-introduced 10m air pistol mixed team event during the closing day of the shooting tournament at the 13th Chinese National Games on Friday.

Beijing Olympic champion Pang Wei (left) reaps his first National Games gold medal from the newly-introduced 10m air pistol mixed team event during the closing day of the shooting tournament at the 13th Chinese National Games on Friday. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

Pang, the men's 10m air pistol titlist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, partnered with Hebei teammate Zhao Xu to prevail over Team Henan's Zhou Ying and He Zhengyang in a tight final.

The two teams split the first 12 series before Team Hebei took the following one point to secure the gold medal with a final score of 7-6.

In the bronze medal match, it was Team Guizhou's Qian Wei and Lou Xiaolong who made third place 7-4, leaving Xiong Yaxuan and Mei Yang of Team Jiangxi on 4th.

Pang, 31, was taking part in his fourth National Games with none of the previous three participations bringing him a gold.

"Glad to win my first National Games gold in a new event. There is more chance of mistakes in mixed team, but that's quite charming for shooters and also attractive for the audiences," said Pang, filled with excitement.

"It was stressful, but brother Pang is reliable," commented Pang's partner Zhao.

Also on Friday, Gao Tingjie and Jiang Ting of Team Jiangsu were crowned in the 10m air rifle mixed team final, beating Team Hebei's Yang Haoran and Du Bei 7-4.

Team Shanghai's Sun Jian and Zhu Yingjie beat Team Yunnan's Sun Ting and Deng Ye in a one-sided match, taking the bronze medal on 7-0.

The 10m air pistol mixed team, 10m air rifle mixed team and trap mixed team events have been ratified to join Tokyo 2020 Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on June 9, 2017 under the recommendation of the sport's world governing body ISSF.