S. Korea falls short of 5th medal in shooting
Oh Ye-jin of South Korea competes in the bronze medal match of the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event at the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
South Korea fell short of grabbing its fifth medal in shooting at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, following a loss in the bronze medal match of the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event.
Lee Won-ho and Oh Ye-jin lost to Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker of India 16-10 to take fourth place at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris.
The shooters each fired single shots, with a perfect score being 10.9 points. Two points were awarded to the team with the higher combined score, with one point given to each team in case of a tie. The goal was to get to 16 points first.
Lee Won-ho, left, and Oh Ye-jin of South Korea react after finishing the bronze medal match of the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event at the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
The South Korean team won the first series to go up 2-0 but never led again the rest of the way. Oh, in particular, struggled with five consecutive scores in the 9s. Down 14-6, Lee and Oh won the next two series to cut the deficit at 14-10, but on their 13th shots, Oh and Lee had just 9.5 and 9.0 points, respectively, to bow out of the match.
Lee had also finished fourth in the men's 10m air pistol individual event. Oh won the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol on Sunday.
Oh was inconsolable afterward, thinking she had ruined an opportunity for Lee to win his first Olympic medal.
Lee, on the other hand, cut a more composed figure.
"I am not disappointed. I think the Paris Olympics gave me a chance to grow," the 24-year-old said. "I've finished in fourth place in a bunch of international events this year, and ended up being fourth twice at the Olympics."
Despite the loss Tuesday, South Korea has already exceeded expectations in shooting here. After settling for only one silver in Tokyo in 2021, South Korea already has two golds and two silvers in France with the competition barely four days old.
Lee said he had a hunch about how things would turn out for the shooting team while he was competing in the individual event.
"Something popped up in my head and I got this feeling that our team was going to surprise people and everyone would win a medal except me," Lee said. "I kept thinking maybe that wouldn't be the case, but things played out like that."
Lee, who won two medals at last year's Asian Games, is naturally right-handed but shoots left-handed. About seven years ago, Lee began experiencing mysterious tremors in his right hand that almost forced him to quit shooting. Doctors were never able to find the cause of the issue, and Lee decided to switch hands to continue to compete.
"Honestly, I'd rather stop shooting left-handed and start switching back to my right hand if I could," Lee said. "I still have tremors on my right hand, even when I am not holding the pistol. But I've been getting a lot of support from people. I really appreciate that."
Lee tried to cheer up Oh by joking, "You may have your gold medal but I have a gold tooth."
"I really wanted to do well today because I had never had good results in mixed team events before," Oh said. "I promised Won-ho I would be there for him but I didn't get it done today. I will keep working and trying to get better."
After shocking the shooting world with the gold medal in her Olympic debut, the 19-year-old Oh said, "This is not the end for me. I still have big competitions coming up and I will try to do well there, too." (Yonhap)