They have competed in several Paralympics but are still devoted to shooting. After years of painstaking trainings, on Monday, two veteran shooters saw their national flags hoisted on the Beijing Paralympic shooting range again.
Jonas Jacobsson is one of the big names in shooting. Previously holding seven world records, the 43-year-old Swedish rifleman expanded his extraordinary Paralympic gold collection on Monday to 14 without much suspense, bettering one of his own records and setting another.
![Jonas Jacobsson of Sweden reacts in the men's R1-10m air rifle standing SH1 final of shooting event during Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, Sept. 8, 2008. Jonas Jacobsson won the gold with a total score of 700.5. [Ren Yong/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080908/000bcdb953f10a2f7a6801.jpg "Jonas Jacobsson of Sweden reacts in the men's R1-10m air rifle standing SH1 final of shooting event during Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, Sept. 8, 2008. Jonas Jacobsson won the gold with a total score of 700.5. [Ren Yong/Xinhua]") |
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Jonas Jacobsson of Sweden reacts in the men's R1-10m air rifle standing SH1 final of shooting event during Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, Sept. 8, 2008. Jonas Jacobsson won the gold with a total score of 700.5. [Ren Yong/Xinhua]
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Always smiling in the wheelchair, the left-handed shooter scored 100 points in three of the six qualification series in men's 10m 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 was always among the last ones to fire. But his scores, all above 10 with six at or above 10.5 points, received cheers and thunderous applauses, especially when he took 10.9 in the seventh shot.
His win seemed to be without doubts. But Jacobsson managed to bring a surprise to the 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 final were the same as those achieved by Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the 10m 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.