Four years ago, people got to know the cheerful Chinese sharp shooter by his beaming smile.

Four years later, they were touched by his tears.

"I didn't know what was going on, my mind went blank," chocked the 24-year-old young man, defending Olympic champion of men's 10-meter air rifle who succumbed to Indian Abhinav Bindra in Beijing on Monday and got a silver with a 0.8-point gap.

HEARTBREAKING MOMENT

Coming from the eastern Zhejiang Province, Zhu holds the Olympic record in the discipline.

He did well at the beginning of the qualification round, finishing the first four of the six series with 100 points and losing only one point in the fifth series. However, when it was just about ten minutes left, the slow shooter still had seven shots to make.

In the seven shots, he lapsed twice with two 9 points.

However, his score, 597 points, still ensured him a second place among finalists, after Finlander Henri Hakkinen who got 598.

In the final, Hakkinen did just a decent job. Zhu was better. But Bindra was super.

Ranked third with 596 points, the 2006 World Championships champion pulled up his slacks from the beginning of the final, impressing spectators with a 10.7 in the first shot.

Zhu, however, didn't seem to be in good shape, firing a 9.9 at the third shot and hence plunged to the third.

Zhu seemed to retain his sharpness at the sixth shot with a 10.7, and the 10.6 in the eighth shot giving Chinese spectators a glim of hope.

But it was too late.

After the ninth shot, he still had a 0.5-point gap behind his Indian rival, who surged to the top after the seventh shot.

In the breathtaking last shot, Bindra made a quick fire of 10.8 point.

The gold fell upon him before the competition finished. Hope of Zhu died out.

Staring at the big screen with his score, 699.7 points, the normally smiling man struggled to hold back his tears.

When he mounted the podium for silver medal, tears finally fell off.

"I didn't know what was going on, my mind went bland," he chocked, "I couldn't get focused during the final as I did in the qualification."

Pressure had been tremendous for the young man, who carved out at his Olympic debut as an unexpected winner.

"This time was much harder than Athens. My craving for the gold was much more than last time."

"I had been troubled by anxiety and bewilderment," he continued. "I was the defending champion. I fought hard with myself to get rid of the thoughts...but it was really hard."

RISING STAR

Zhu was born to an impoverished peasant family in Wenzhou. In 1992, his father borrowed 2,000 yuan to send him to a local primary school. Then the parents went to work in the prosperous Guangdong Province, leaving their son to his grandma.

Zhu started the practice of shooting at the age of 15, when coach You Xiuxia selected him. Couldn't stand the dull trainings, some students quit, but Zhu persisted.

At first, it had been a secret between the boy and his grandma, for fear that his parents would interfere, until half a year later.

On one Saturday night, it was nine o'clock but Zhu still didn't return home. His mother became worried.

"Where did he go?" asked Xie Aifang.

"He went to practice shooting," replied the granny offhandedly.

Of course what awaited the boy was interrogation. But the determined son successfully persuaded his mother to let him carry on. Later, he was sent to sports school.

"Since you gave me this chance, I would never let you down," he promised.

Zhu Qinan impressed his coach with stability and carefulness.

"He was born to be a shooter," said Zhu Xiaobo, a coach with the Zhejiang provincial shooting team who picked up the boy at the end of 2001.

The coach was right.

Soon the fledging shooter went into people's sight by winning from national competitions to international ones.

At the Athens Olympic Games, the newcomer emerged as a dark horse. The picture maybe still in many people's mind, in which the 20-year-old with brush cut turned around and pointed at his nose when his coach sitting behind told him of his victory.

MENTAL BURDEN

Everybody close to him knew how eager Zhu was to defend his title at the Beijing Olympics, although he never said so.

At the Chinese City Games last October, he surpassed the world record of 703.1 points by 0.6 to win a gold medal.

After the awarding ceremony, he immediately took off the medal.

"I will stow this one and prepare myself for the next," he said.

In the eyes of Chang Jingchun, Zhu was among the most diligent shooter.

"I never remind him of practice. In fact, nothing could stop him," the soft-spoken coach also choked.

Zhu's desire to win was tremendous, under which he almost collapsed.

After the training on Sunday, he had a conversation with Chang.

Zhu said, "I am afraid."

"Who are you afraid of? Any other shooters?" Chang asked.

"No. Just myself..." his head drooped.

According to Chang, his burden was neither money nor fame.

"He said he just didn't want to let down his teammates and me," said the coach.

In Zhu's own words, "My coach dedicated so much for me and my teammates had great hopes in me. I was not competing alone."

Standing on the podium, the boy said to himself, "after four years of endeavor, this (the silver medal) is not the result that I wanted. Although I crowned in 2004, what I really wanted was a gold medal on our own soil."

Thus he admitted, "the tears were just a vent of my oppression."

People were touched the moment Zhu wiped. Spectators applauded, many with red eyes.

On the BBS of China's portal website of Sina, nearly 30,000 netizens left comments as of Monday evening.

"Boy, don't cry! You're our hero. It is not your gold medal but your spirit and your persistence that we cherish. I hope to see your smile again," said a netizen from Henan province.

"Believe us, we know how much you paid out. We will support you as always. We support each athlete who fights for his own dream," followed another from Tianjin.

"Actually you did quite well. Under such a pressure, you can grab the silver. It was not easy," a person from Shandong said.

Gao Zhidan, leader of the Chinese shooting team, patted Chang at the back to comfort him.

"Zhu is one of the best athletes in the world and you are one of the best coaches," he said.

"Standing aloft, he had suffered from the chill that others couldn't imagine. Now that he is back to be an ordinary person, it may not be a bad thing."

Source:Xinhua