China's Luna Tao astonished everyone, including herself, as she claimed the Olympic gold for the women's 10 metre air pistol on Sunday.
The 26-year-old, whose only previous significant result was a World Cup win two years ago in Zurich, held on to a narrow two-point lead from the qualifying phase to win with a total of 488.2 points. Veteran Yugoslav Jasna Sekaric, the 1988 Olympic champion, took silver with 486.5.
Local favourite Annemarie Forder staged a remarkable Come back from fifth place after qualifying to collect 484 points for the bronze. ''My trainer told me not to aim too high and so I was quite relaxed and didn't feel any pressure,'' said Tao. ''I never thought about the gold medal. It never crossed my mind.''
Forder delighted her australian fans with a 10 for her final shot to push European champion Svetlana Smirnova of Russia into fourth.

''I was quite confident going into the final,'' said the 22-year-old Australian, who won the air pistol title at the 1998 commonwealth games in Kuala Lumpur. ''The way everybody supported me was unbelievable. I'm just glad that last shot was a 10.'' world record holder Jie Ren failed to make the final, finishing 16th in qualifying. The men's trap final later on Sunday was to complete the day's programme at Cecil park. Bureau Report