Shooting attracts much attention as it is supposed to produce the first gold medal at the forthcoming Beijing Olympic Games. Here are some facts and figures about the sport:

98: Shooters from 98 countries and regions are to open fire in the shooting range at the western suburb of Beijing next month.

15: They are going to compete in 15 disciplines, among which five are rifle events, five pistol events and five shotgun events.

11: Eleven shooters will celebrate their birthdays during the Olympic Games from August 8 to 24, including DPR Korean markswoman Pak Yong Hui, runner-up at the 2002 Busan Asian Games and the 2008 Good Luck Beijing World Cup in women's trap, and Russian shooter Konstantin Tsuranov, who won silver medal in men's skeet at Good Luck Beijing test event.

7: Only seven shooters have managed to defend their titles as champion in one discipline since the first modern Olympics in 1896.Chinese shooter Yang Ling was one among them. He was crowned at 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney in 10-meter moving target event.

Oldest: The oldest shooter to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games is Afanasijs Kuzmins from Latvia. He was born on March 22, 1947. Kuzmins, a teacher, had taken part in several Olympics and was gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, silver-medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and fourth place at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

The oldest markswoman is Canadian Sue Nattrass, who will be 58 this November. She has been crowned in seven world championships since 1974, the latest being the 2006 Zagreb World Championships.

Both shooters are second-oldest male and female athletes to this Olympics, only younger than two Japanese in equestrian.

Most: The shooter who wrapped up most Olympic medals is American Carl Osburn, who altogether raked in eleven medals from three Summer Olympics from 1912 to 1924, including five gold medals. His collection might have expanded had the 1912 Olympics not been cancelled due to World War I. Born in Ohio on May 5 1884, the commander graduated from the United States Naval Academy and passed away on December 28 1966 in California. The Chinese shooter who earned most Olympic medals was Wang Yifu, who pocketed six medals including two golds from six Olympics.

In terms of countries and regions, the United States topped the Olympic shooting medal list with 97 medals, followed by Sweden with55, former Soviet Union 51, Great Britain 43 and China 34. On the Olympic gold medal list, China is ranked fourth with 14 gold, one and three less than Sweden and former Soviet Union respectively. The host country is likely to surge to the second after this Olympics, but it is still far away from the leader United States who boasts 48 gold medals.

Source:Xinhua