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.

"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."

With only one shot below 10 (a 9.9), Zhu maintained his consistent shooting in the final round. An excellent sixth shot (10.9) and seventh shot (10.8) helped him into second place before he clinched the gold with a 10.4.

"I am not now in my best form because I just recovered from appendicitis surgery in early March," said a relaxed and confident Zhu.

"This match was difficult, but at the coming Games it will be different."

Another Athens Olympic champion, Du Li, the world record holder in women's 10m rifle, who took a bronze in the women's 10m air rifle on Saturday, believes the pressure helps her perform better. Her optimism will come in handy in August as the women's 10m air rifle will probably produce the first gold medal in Beijing. Du is expected to take a medal again, just as she did four years ago in Athens.

"I am enjoying the pressure of winning the first gold in Beijing a lot," she said. "I consider it a unique experience because only a few Chinese athletes have the opportunity to take the first gold for our country."

She said her bronze-medal finish was no big deal.

"I did not shoot badly, but others did really well. This tournament was just a test for me to find out how to compete in my home venue. I think I did quite well in this respect and I can manage the situation at the Olympics."

In order to get used to the home crowd, Du did not wear earplugs during the tournament, to feel how difficult playing at home can be.

"When we compete in a foreign country, the spectators cannot disturb us much because we can't understand their language," she said.

"But at the Beijing Games there will be very loud cheers from our Chinese supporters and I can understand every word they say, so I need to get prepared for a very noisy and disturbing atmosphere."

For other Chinese medal hopefuls, the experience at the Olympic test event could be a good lesson about the pressures of playing at home.

"I was too anxious to win," Ren admitted. "I lost my control on the last shot."

(China Daily April 16, 2008)