Twenty-year-old Pang Wei from China produced the first big surprise of the 49th World Shooting Championships by winning the men's 10m air pistol at his first international appearance on Sunday.

"It is really a big surprise for me," said Pang, only recruited into the national team late last year and was originally set to participate in the junior events.

Pang collected 584 points in the qualification round and 99.8 points in the 10-shot final.

Thailand's Jakkrit Panichpatikum took the silver with a total of 683 points with Russian veteran Vladimir Gontcharov on the third position with 680.6 points.

Pang, together with his teammates Lin Zhongzai and Tan Zongliang, won the team gold for China with a total of 1747 points, two more than the Russian team.

In the junior events of the 10m air pistol, Chinese shooters pocketed three gold medals out of four. Pu Qifeng, 20, crowned in the men's individual with 580 points while the golds of men's and women's team both went to China.

The only close miss of the Chinese team of the day was the women's 10m air pistol junior individual event. Brankica Zaric from Serbia and Montenegro and China's Liu Weiwei scored both 384 points, but Zaric won by one-point advantage of the last series of 10 shots.

The 16-day-long tournament, which opened here on the Saturday, produces 54 berths for the Beijing Olympics 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2006)