Pistol shooter Jin Jong-oh grabs 2 titles at final world championship

Four-time Olympic shooting gold medalist Jin Jong-oh has ended his world championship career with a bang, capturing two titles on Thursday on home soil.

Jin defeated Artem Chernousov of Russia in a shoot-off for the men's 10-meter air pistol title at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship at Changwon International Shooting Centre in Changwon, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Jin also won the 10m air pistol title at the previous world championship in 2014 in Granada, Spain.

Jin was trailing the Russian by 6.4 points with seven bullets left but tied him at 241.5 points with a 10.4 on his last shot. Chernousov scored a 10.0 to fall into a shoot-off.

Shooting first, Jin hit a 10.3, while Chernousov could only manage a 9.5.

Jin, who shot an 8.4 with his second bullet in the final, admitted he didn't think he could catch Chernousov, and that mindset ended up helping him down the final stretch.

"When I fell to eighth place (among eight finalists) early, I figured I was done," Jin said. "And then I started to relax more. It's never good to fall too far back too early, but it allowed me to just be myself. I still didn't think I could win until the very last shot."

Earlier Thursday, Jin combined with countrymen Lee Dae-myung and Han Seung-woo for the 10-meter air pistol team gold medal.

The team competition added points by three shooters for each country from the individual qualification round.

The South Koreans put up 1,747 points, edging out India by nine points.

Lee was the top South Korean and second overall with 584 points, followed by Jin at 582 points and Han at 581 points. Lee went on to win bronze in the individual final.

The usually stoic Jin shed tears of joy after clinching his individual gold and said he had his two teammates on his mind throughout the day.

"Winning the individual title is fine, but I am also happy that we proved the greatness of our male pistol team," Jin said. "It was great to have those two guys by my side. A lot of thoughts went through my mind and I got really emotional."

Jin, the only shooter in Olympic history with four individual gold medals, has wrapped up his final world championship. The 38-year-old won the 50m pistol team title at the 2010 worlds in Munich and picked up 10m air pistol and 50m pistol titles four years later.

By virtue of their top-four finish, Jin and Lee both secured spots for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Jin is a three-time defending gold medalist in the 50m pistol but that event has since been scrapped from the Olympics.

Asked about his goal for the next Olympics, Jin said, "I won't talk about it now. I only want to enjoy today." (Yonhap)