Tan Zongliang (L) pose with coach after the 10m pistol shooting men's final at 13th Chinese National Games in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Aug 30,2017. Tan Zongliang won the gold medal with a score of 242.3 rings. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

　　TIANJIN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Former world champion Tan Zongliang collected 242.3 points in the men's 10m air pistol final to surpass the world record at 13th Chinese National Games here on Wednesday.

　　Tan from Shandong province fired a disappointing 8.7-point shot at the beginning to rank just the fifth but came from behind to nail the gold after 10 shots at the national games, dubbed the mini-Olympics by the Chinese.

　　"There was not enough time to adjust myself to the final, so the first several shots were not satisfactory. But I became more and more confident as the competition went on, and it worked," said Tan. "I am lucky, but I must say that the gold medal mainly came as amy inner power."

　　It was the third gold for the 45-year-old shooter in his seventh participation in Chinese National Games since 1993 after two gold medals from the 7th and 10th Games respectively.

　　"The gold was unexpected but reasonable, because I did focus on every shot without any thoughts on the result," said the veteran shooter. "It is an honor to make the final for a shooter."

　　More unexpected for Tan was his result which surpassed the current world record of 241.6 points set by Christian Reitz of Germany on March 10 this year at European Shooting Championship in Maribor of Slovenia.

　　"I have never dared to think about another gold and the record. For this, I want to thank a lot of people," said Tan, also expressing his deepest gratitude to Shandong Provincial Sport Bureau.