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China wins the first gold medal of the 2024 Olympics
China’s Sheng Lihao, right, and teammate Huang Yuting compete for the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team medal round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Updated 5:28 PM GMT+8, July 27, 2024
CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — China has won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, but its athletes were nowhere near Paris.
The Olympic shooting range, a three-hour drive from Paris in the city of Chateauroux, was the venue for Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao to shoot for gold in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event held Saturday morning.
Huang and Sheng opened up an early four-point lead against South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun in the head-to-head for the gold medal and stayed ahead from there to win 16-12.
China also won the event three years ago in Tokyo, when Yang Qian and Yang Haoran took the gold medal as team air rifle shooting made its debut on the Olympic program.
Earlier Saturday, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev became the first medalists of the games when they beat Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 for the bronze.
China wins the first gold medal of the 2024 Olympics in mixed team air rifle shooting
Huang and Sheng opened up an early four-point lead against South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun and stayed ahead from there to win 16-12.
apnews.com
China bag first gold medal of Paris Olympics in mixed air rifle shooting
- World champions victorious in convincing style
- Team GB shooters finish 26th out of 28 teams
Yuting Huang of China and Lihao Sheng of China in action. Photograph: Amr Alfiky/Reuters
Some 250km from the Eiffel Tower, at a muggy military base on the outskirts of Chateauroux, China claimed the first gold medal of the 2024 Olympic Games. The records will show Yuting Huang and Lihao Sheng, the world champions and favourites for the 10m mixed air rifle team event, sealed victory at 11.22am.
The Korean pair of Jihyeon Keum and Hajun Park took silver. Celebrations – at least from the competitors – were muted as opposed to anything approaching euphoric.
With 16 the points target for victory, China had taken a 6-2 lead after four rounds. Sheng’s accuracy was exceptional. The Korean coach, sensing this could run away from his team, called a time out. The move briefly worked, Korea taking the next round to halve the deficit. Huang responded, affording the Chinese a four-point advantage again.
The lead was to prove an unassailable one. Two shots, each earning 10.6 values – the highest possible is 10.9 – in the ninth round was key. At this point, China were ahead 12-6. They needed 14 rounds to secure gold, 16-12, Korea launching a late rally by moving the score from 14-8 to 14-12. France’s minister for sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was among those in attendance.
Germany had edged out Norway by narrowest of margins to seal a bronze medal match berth against Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan team of Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev enjoyed a fast start but were hauled back by Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich. With Le in particular excelling, Kazakhstan established another lead, this time 11-5. At 10.45am, Satpayev saw Kazakhstan across the line 17-5, for the first medal of the Games.
Team GB’s Seonaid McIntosh and Michael Bargeron finished 26th out of 28 in the qualifying rounds, with both vowing to focus on their other shooting disciplines. “This was always a warm-up for us,” said Bargeron. “We planned it out weeks ago. So it was nice to get the nerves out, feel the crowd, feel the atmosphere and the heat as well. It was really great.”
China bag first gold medal of Paris Olympics in mixed air rifle shooting
China bagged the first gold of the Paris Olympics when Yuting Huang and Lihao Sheng, the world champions and favourites, won the 10m mixed air rifle event
(fromL) South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Haju (silver), China’s Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao (gold), Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev (bronze) pose at the end of the shooting 10m air rifle mixed team during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Chateauroux Shooting Centre on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
Read more: https://sports.inquirer.net/576618/china-wins-first-gold-of-paris-olympics-2024#ixzz8hAqjfjRr
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