Park Ha-jun, right, and Keum Ji-hyeon show the silver medals during the award ceremony at Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Dols, France, July 27. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon teamed up for the silver medal in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event of the Paris Olympics on Saturday, the first medal for the country at the 33rd Summer Games in France.
Park and Keum lost to Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting of China 16-12 in the gold medal match at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, about 270 kilometers south of Paris.
This was the very first medal event of this Olympics.
The Korean duo had qualified for the gold medal match by finishing in second place in the qualification round, just behind Sheng and Huang.
In the final, shooters each fired single shots on command within a 50-second limit, with the perfect score being 10.9 points. The shooters' combined total became their team's overall score. The team with the higher score earned two points.
Park and Keum won the first series of shots by 20.6-20.3, but then the Chinese team won the next three series to take a 6-2 lead.
Korea won the fifth series after a timeout, before China jumped out to a 12-6 lead.
China pushed Korea to the brink at 14-8 by winning the 11th series 20.7-20.3, after Park hit a 9.8.
Korea stayed alive by taking the next series, prompting a Chinese timeout. Then in the 13th series, Park and Keum each scored 10.7 points for the win, making it a 14-12 contest.
The pressure was now squarely on the two Chinese teenagers, and they rose to the occasion in the 14th series, with Sheng scoring 10.8 points and Huang adding 10.7 points to finish off Park (10.6 points) and Keum (10.5 points).
Park Ha-jun, right, and Keum Ji-hyeon compete in the gold medal match in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event of the Paris Olympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, July 27. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Korea finished with just one silver medal at the 2021 Olympics and has set out to grab six medals this year.
Keum said she was disappointed not to have won the gold, considering how confident she was entering the final, but it still meant a lot to her that she and Park delivered South Korea its first medal of this Olympics.
"We were fortunate to have that opportunity because of how our schedule was set up," Keum said. "We both leaned on each other, and I am glad we were able to finish with a medal."
Park had also won South Korea's first shooting medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games last September, as a member of the men's 10-meter air rifle team event. He said he expected other South Korean athletes to pick it up from here.
"We have athletes that are much better than I am," he said. "I am sure they will be putting on great performances going forward." (Yonhap)