Xing Huina added the women's 10,000 meters national title to her Olympic gold on the opening day's competition of track and field at the 10th Chinese National Games in Nanjing on Monday.

Former world champion Tan Zongliang, also from Shandong, finally took the gold in the National Games after three failed attempts, winning the men's 10m air pistol title.

Xing clocked 31 minutes and 0.73 seconds for the title, beating marathon champion Sun Yingjie to the second place.

Sun, who flew here from her third successive victory in the Beijing international marathon, doubled as the marathon competition of the National Games, on Sunday, settled for the silver in 31:03.90, and Jiangsu's Zhou Chunxiu finished third with further 5.13 second behind.

"Thanks everybody for supporting me all the time," said Xing. "To march for a better result in 2008 Olympics will turn next to be my main goal."

In men's shooting, Tan Zongliang took 12 years and four National Games to win his first gold medal when he show down the title of the men's 10m air pistol.

In the women's table tennis singles final, Olympic champion Zhang Yining of Beijing toppled Wang Nan of Liaoning to win the gold. Zhang, who lost 3-2 to Wang after leading by 2-0 in the finals of last version of the tournament in 2001, took the revenge with a 6-11, 11-6, 8-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 victory.

The men's doubles table tennis gold medal went to Shanghai pair Wang Liqin and Liu Shan, who beat Guangdong's Ma Lin/Zhang Chao 12-10, 7-11, 12-14, 11-4, 9-11, 13-11, 11-8 in the final.

Wang, world No. 1 singles player, also entered the final of the mixed doubles on Sunday but Wang, who paired with Zhang Jing, eventually lost to Liaoning's Xu Hui/Guo Yue by 4-0.

The men's weightlifting competition also opened on the day and two gold medals were decided.

In the 56kg class, Yu Tingxiao, 30, from Sichuan province, defeated a group of established stars for the title with a total of 282.5kg. Yu snatched 127.5kg and jerked 155kg to secure his title, defeating former world champion Lu Jinbi of Yunan and Athens Olympic Games silver medallist Wu Meijin to the second and third places respectively.

Qiu Le, a new face in the national team, made a strong hit at the 62kg category to claim his domination in domestic arena.

Qiu, who won the national championships in 2004 and 2005, showed his dominance when he hoisted 145kg in the snatch and jerked up 177.5kg for a winning total of 322.5kg.

Sichuan won its second shooting title as Liu Tianyou was crowned in the men's 50m rifle 3X40. The 23-year-old Liu, who took the silver medal of the men's 10m air rifle last Thursday, scored a total of 1,266.4 points to strike his first title at the National Games.

Gan Lin came back from the fourth place to win the men's running target. He scored the most 98.9 points in the 10-shot final to claim the first gold medal for Guangdong province with a total of 678.8 points

Track and field produced a total of seven gold medals totally on the day.

Individual participant Liu Yinghui won the women's hammer throw, beating Asian record holder Zhang Wenxiu and veteran Gu Yuan.

Liu, the reigning national and World Universiade champion in Turkey two months ago, took the win in 72.17 meters. Ma Ning threw 60.64 meters for the women's javelin throw gold.

Veteran jumper Jing Xuezhu from Beijing retained her title in the women's high jump with 1.92 meters. Li Meiju made a successful return to the field after being sidelined for a long time by injury, claiming the women's shot put champion with 18.88 meters. Chen Mingfu won the men's 10,000m gold in 28 minutes and 16.40 seconds. The men's 3,000m steeplechase title went to Sun Wenli in eight minutes 32.36 seconds.

An Asian record was set in the swimming competition as Chen Zuo shattered the Asian mark of the men's 100m freestyle event with a time of 49.56 seconds.

Liu Weijia, 16, slashed 0.28 seconds off the national record to take the men's 200m breaststroke title. Liu covered the distance in two minutes and 14.28 seconds.

Huang Xiaotong, only 13, surprised all by taking the women's 200m butterfly title in a time of two minutes 9.25 seconds.

The other gold medal was take by Shanghai team in the women's 4x200m free relay in a time of eight minutes 1.36 seconds, 4.05 seconds ahead of Zhejiang, with Shandong third in 8:09.12.

In the tennis mixed doubles event, top-seeded Li Ting/Zhu Benqiang claimed the title after defeating the third-seeded Liu Wanting/Lu Hao 6-1, 6-3.

Li Ting was also champion of the mixed doubles in the 2001 National Games when she paired with Jiang Shan, while Zhu Benqiang/Li Na were the bronze medallists of mixed doubles in 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2005)