Korea's Oh Ye-jin, Kim Ye-ji secure gold, silver in women's 10m air pistol
Oh Ye-jin, right, and Kim Ye-ji of Korea celebrate winning the gold and the silver medals, respectively, in the women's 10-meter air pistol shooting event at the Paris Olympics at Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Korean shooters Oh Ye-jin and Kim Ye-ji captured the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the women's 10-meter air pistol shooting at the Paris Summer Games on Sunday, with Oh setting an Olympic record in the process.
Oh scored 243.2 points to hold off Kim by 1.9 points in the final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. Manu Bhaker of India took the bronze medal with 221.7 points.
Oh, 19, became the new Olympic record holder in her debut, surpassing the previous record of 240.3 points set by Vitalina Batsarashkina of Russia at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Oh's was Korea's second gold medal of the Paris Olympics. Korea now has three medals in shooting, having earlier grabbed silver in the 10m air rifle mixed team event.
The final, featuring eight shooters, started with 10 shots, fired across two series of five shots each, with a 250-second time limit per series and a perfect score of 10.9.
After that, single shots were fired, with a 50-second limit per shot. After every two shots, the lowest-ranked shooter was eliminated.
After the first series of five shots, Oh Ye-jin led the field with 52.2 points, with Kim in third place at 49.7 points and Bhaker in second with 50.4.
Oh remained in first place after the second series with 101.7 points, and Kim moved up to second place with 101.5 points, leaving Bhaker in third place with 100.3 points.
Oh Ye-jin, left, and Kim Ye-ji of Korea hold up their respective gold and silver medals in the women's 10-meter air pistol shooting event at the Paris Olympics at Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
During the elimination stage, the seesaw match ensued between the two Koreans.
Kim moved into first place after the first two shots, and held a 0.1-point lead over Oh after the next four shots.
But then the clutch gene in Oh came to life, as she jumped back into the lead with the scores of 10.6 and 10.2 to reach 182.5 points. Kim put up a 9.7 to fall back to second place at 181.7 points.
By that point, it was a three-horse race involving Oh, Kim and Bhaker.
After the 11th shot of the elimination stage, Bhaker zipped past Kim at 221.4 points to 211.3 points, suddenly putting Kim in a bronze medal position with the next shot eliminating the third-place shooter.
Bhaker then hit a 10.3 to reach 221.7 points. Needing a 10.5 to stay alive, Kim hit precisely that score to ensure a gold-silver finish for Korea.
Oh held a 0.8-point lead over Kim at that point and extended that lead by hitting a 10.0 to Kim's 9.7 with their penultimate shots.
Oh then clinched the gold and the Olympic record with a 10.6 with her final shot.
This was the first gold-silver double dip by Korea in an Olympic shooting event since Jin Jong-oh and Choi Young-rae finished first and second in the men's 50m pistol at the 2012 Olympics. (Yonhap)