Korean shooters lose to China for air rifle silver, first medal at Paris Olympics

It was an intense, high-scoring fight for gold, with multiple victories determined by a difference of 0.1 or 0.2 marks.

Korea's Keum Ji-hyeon, left, and teammate Park Ha-jun compete in the 10-meter air rifle mixed gold medal round at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday in Chateauroux, France. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean sport shooters Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon on Saturday took silver in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event, losing to China 16-12 but winning the country’s first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It was an intense, high-scoring gold-medal match, with multiple victories determined by a difference of 0.1 or 0.2 marks.

The first team to surpass 16 points would take gold — the first medal across sport shooting at the Olympics. Two points were awarded to the team with the highest combined score per round, and one point for a tie.

Park and Keum started strong, winning the first round by a 0.3-point margin, but fell behind as China’s Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting won three rounds in a row.

Korea called a time-out ahead of the fifth round and came back to narrow the gap and put the score at 6-4 after their breather.

Korea's Keum Ji-hyeon is instructed by her coach as she competes for the gold medal in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team gold medal round at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday in Chateauroux, France. [AP/YONHAP]

Shouts of “Dae-han Min-guk fighting!” could be heard from the stands.

But China restored their two-round lead, with Korea staying four points behind as China sat one round away from gold.

Korea nearly pulled off a comeback, winning two rounds in a row to put the sheet at 14-12 heading into the 14th round but settled for silver after falling short by a score difference of 0.4.

Korea's Park Ha-jun competes in the mixed 10-meter air rifle gold medal match during the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Paris on Saturday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea reached the gold medal match after finishing second to China in the qualification round earlier the same day. The top two teams from the pool of 28 were guaranteed either silver or gold while the third and fourth placed teams qualified for the bronze medal match.

China ended the qualification round on top, with a total of 632.2 points. Korea scored a combined 631.4 points, with Keum notching 316.2 points and Park adding 315.2 points to edge out Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev by a 0.8-point margin.

The Kazakh duo defeated Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximillian Ulbrich 17-5 to take bronze after 11 rounds.

Korea’s Ban Hyo-jin and Choe Dae-han were also entered in the mixed air rifle contest but placed 22nd with 623.7 points.

Keum is also set to compete in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event while Park will compete in the men’s 10-meter air rifle and the 50-meter rifle 3-position contests.

Shooting runs through Aug. 5 in Paris. A total of 15 sub-categories have medals up for grabs — six men’s, six women’s and three mixed events.

Korea has at least one entry in almost every shooting category in Paris, excluding trap men.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]