South Korea won silver in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event at the Asian Games on Tuesday, its first silver medal in shooting after winning two bronze medals earlier in the competition.
Ban Hyo-jin and Park Ha-jun finished second with 502.9 points in the final at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, about 25 kilometers east of the main host city of Nagoya. China's Wang Zifei and Sheng Lihao won gold with a world record total of 507.1 points.
Japan took bronze with 439.7 points, while India finished fourth in the four-team final with 376.3 points.
Both South Korean shooters had won bronze medals earlier in the competition -- Ban in the women's 10-meter air rifle individual event and Park in the men's 10-meter air rifle team event.
In the mixed team final, each shooter fired 15 shots in Stage 1, for a total of 30 shots per team, with a maximum score of 10.9 points per shot.
In Stage 2, each shooter fired three more shots, with the lowest-scoring team eliminated after each six-shot series.
India was eliminated first, while the bronze medal was decided after the next six shots. The two remaining teams then contested the final six shots for gold.
After the opening 30 shots, South Korea was third with 314.3 points, behind leader China at 315.7 and Japan at 314.9. India was fourth at 312.3.
India was eliminated after the first series of Stage 2, with South Korea trailing Japan 378.2-378.1.
As China pulled away, South Korea and Japan battled for second place. With one shot remaining for each shooter in the second series, South Korea trailed Japan by 0.8 points.
Park, who had earlier shot a 9.9, responded with a perfect 10.9 to help South Korea edge Japan 440.1-439.7 and secure silver.
China was well ahead at 443.6 points. After the opening shots of the final series, the gap widened further, with Ban and Park scoring 10.7 and 9.7, respectively, while Wang and Sheng posted 10.8 and 10.7 to all but secure gold for China.
Park won his second consecutive Asian Games medal in the event after taking bronze three years ago. Ban, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist and 2025 world champion in the 10-meter air rifle individual event, is competing in her first Asian Games.
South Korea is still seeking its first shooting gold of the Games after setting a target of at least five. (Yonhap)
