Feature: Legendary shooter Jacobsson on track to another medal haul

Source: Xinhua | 09-08-2008 16:43

BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Like Michael Phelps, the name Jonas Jacobsson itself means medal and record on Paralympic shooting ranges in Beijing.

Previously holding seven world records, the 43-year-old left-handed riflist just expanded his extraordinary Paralympic gold collection on Monday to 14 without so much suspension, bettering one of his own records and setting another.

Always smiling on the wheelchair, the handsome shooter scored 100 points in three of the six qualification series in men's 10-meter air rifle standing. He finished with a new world record of 596 points, which enabled him to top the finalists' list.

In the ten-shot final, the man, who was three shots ahead of the second-placer, appeared cautious and always being the next-to-last one to open fire. But his scores, all above 10 with six higher than or equalling 10.5 points, incurred cheers and thunderous applauses, especially the 10.9 in the seventh shot.

His winning seemed to be without doubts. But Jacobsson managed to bring an surprise to ebullient spectators by improving his own record of the discipline by 3.2 points to a stunning 700.5.

Coincidentally, his scores in both qualification and fianl were the same as those achieved by Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the 10-meter air rifle gold medal at the Beijing Olympics less than a month ago at the very same venue, the Beijing Shooting Range Hall.

After the competition, however, the champion appeared calm and cool-headed.

"The main thing was to continue the streak. I've now won eight Paralympics in a row. That was the main goal, and hopefully I can get another good result here," he said.