Shooting-China's Huang and Sheng win first gold of Paris Games

[July 27, 2024]  By Amlan Chakraborty
 
CHATEAUROUX, France (Reuters) -China's Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao won the first gold medal of the Paris Games on Saturday in the 10 metres air rifle mixed team event.  

Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun of South Korea claimed silver and Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev of Kazakhstan were awarded bronze.

Paris 2024 Olympics - Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Gold Medal - Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Dols, France - July 27, 2024. Yuting Huang of China and Lihao Sheng (R) of China after winning. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

Three years after Yang Qian and Yang Haoran won the gold in Tokyo, compatriots Huang and Sheng made sure China retained it.

The reigning world champions topped the qualifying round ahead of their Korean rivals at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

The gold medal round was not really a cakewalk though despite them racing to a 14-8 lead after the first 11 shots.

Keum and Park staged a late comeback to reduce the gap at 14-12 but the Chinese pair prevailed 16-12 in the end.

Le and Satpayev gave Kazakhstan their first medal of the Paris Games with a 17-5 romp against the German pair of Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)

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