Korea's Lee Won-ho narrowly misses men's 10m air pistol medal

Lee waved to the audience before returning to join his coach on the sidelines. The German shooting coach, sitting next to Korea as fifth-place finishers, gave Lee a few pats on the shoulder after Lee's coach had done the same.

Lee Won-ho, who advanced into the men's 10-meter air pistol final at the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Chatereaux Shooting Center in France on Sunday, is aiming at the target. [YONHAP]

Korea’s Lee Won-ho narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s 10-meter air pistol at the Paris Olympics Sunday, finishing in fourth place in the final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France.

Lee, shooting left, struggled to break through to the top three for most of the final round. He exited the competition after the 20th shot with a score of 197.9 — 2.1 points behind Italian shooter and eventual bronze-medalist Paolo Monna’s 199.8.

Lee waved to the audience before returning to join his coach on the sidelines. The German shooting coach, sitting next to Korea as fifth-place finishers, gave Lee a few pats on the shoulder after Lee's coach had done the same.

Lee Won-ho waves to the audience after being eliminated from the final round of the men's 10-meter air pistol at the Paris Olympics in Chateroux, France on Sunday. [YONHAP]

He finished the first stage of the eight-man final in sixth place. Athletes shoot a total of 10 bullets over two series in the first stage. In the second stage, athletes fired two bullets per round the lowest-scoring athlete after two shots was eliminated from the competition.

China’s Xie Yu won gold, with Italy’s Federico Nilo Maldini taking silver.

China also won the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event, beating Korea’s Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon, which took place a day earlier as the first medal round in shooting at the Paris Games.

Korea's Kim Ye-ji and Oh Ye-jin earlier qualified for the women's 10-meter air pistol final, which was set to take place at the shooting center later Sunday as of press time.

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