South Korea picked up two silver medals and one bronze medal in shooting competitions at the Asian Games on Friday, hitting a speed bump on its daily quest to reach the top of the podium.
In the women’s rifle three-position event ― kneeling, prone and standing, the squad of Yoo Seo-young, Jeong Mi-ra and Kim Seol-a earned an aggregate 1,734 points to reach second place on the podium at Ongnyeon International Shooting Range in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon.
China finished first with 1,737 points, and Kazakhstan scored 1,727 for bronze.
Though South Korea had maintained the lead midway through the competition, the host nation squandered a chance to win its eighth shooting gold with some late hiccups.
Through Thursday, South Korea collected seven gold medals from the shooting range at the Asiad, achieving its stated goal. A total of 44 shooting gold medals are on offer at the ongoing continental competition.
Korea’s Jeong Mi-ra competes in the women’s rifle three-position event on Friday. (Yonhap)
The 27-year-old Jeong led her team to the silver medal, ranking third out of the eight qualifiers for the individual final, with the two teenage shooters, Yoo and Kim, finishing 10th and 17th, respectively.
She then brought another silver home in the subsequent individual final, narrowly missing out on her chance to be crowned the country’s first female double gold medalist in shooting at the ongoing multisport competition.
On Wednesday, she joined Na Yoon-kyung and Eum Bit-na for the 50-meter rifle prone team gold.
Jeong, who had been out in front for most of the day, held a 0.7-point lead over Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan with one shot remaining, but the South Korean shot a disappointing 8.4 for a total of 455.5 points. Dovgun scored a 10.0 with her final shot to finish at 456.4 points. Chang Jing of China was the bronze medal winner with 446.2 points.
Under the new format of the game, eight shooters compete in the final, with the two lowest-ranking shooters after the first 40 shots being eliminated. The format further knocks out one shooter after each single shot with the standing position. That leaves only two shooters left standing, vying for the gold with a single final shot.
In the 25-meter center fire pistol event, the South Korean male team took the bronze medal.
The team of Kim Young-min, Jang Dae-kyu, and Kim Jin-il combined for 1,739 points for the third-place finish. China captured gold with 1,742 points, and India won silver with 1,740.
With the single competition determining both team medals and individual winners, Oleg Engachev of Qatar won the gold with 585 points, edging out Jin Yongde of China with more inner 10s after a shoot-off. The bronze medal winner was Bin Gai from Singapore, who scored one more point than South Korea’s Kim Young-min.
The host country also fielded three shooters in the women’s 10-meter running target event but ended up empty-handed.
Building a pretty substantial lead from the outset, the Chinese team of Li Xue Yan, Yang Zeng and Su Li cruised to the gold medal with the Asian games record score of 1,148 points. Vietnam was a distant second with 1,106 points, followed by Qatar with 1,073.
South Korea finished fifth with 1,060 points after its communist neighbor, North Korea, with 1,069 points.
So far, South Korea has bagged 22 medals in shooting, with seven gold, nine silver and six bronze medals. (Yonhap)
