South Korean shooter Yang Ji-in, the gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, successfully defended her title at the 2026 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships in Doha, setting a world record in the process.
Yang scored 44 points in the women's 25-meter pistol final in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, defeating Vietnam's Trinh Thu Vinh by one point to claim the gold medal.
Her score of 44 broke the previous world record of 43 set by India's Esha Singh at the Munich World Cup in May.
Yang, who won gold medals in both the individual and team events at last year's World Championships in Cairo, secured her second consecutive individual world title and earned South Korea a quota place for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Olympic quota places are awarded to countries rather than individual athletes, meaning Yang must still qualify through South Korea's national team selection process to compete in Los Angeles.
Yang advanced to the final in fifth place after scoring 588 points across two days of qualification.
She trailed Trinh through the seventh series but hit all 15 shots from the eighth through the 10th series to stage a dramatic comeback victory.
The triumph marked a return to form for Yang, who missed out on a medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after a costly mistake in qualification, when she failed to fire a shot within the time limit.
"I was really envious when someone set an unofficial world record at a domestic competition, so I'm happy to have achieved it myself," Yang said. "I'll do my best to make sure I'm the one who competes at the LA Olympics."
In the women's 25-meter pistol team event, South Korea's Yang, Oh Ye-jin of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea and Nam Da-jeong of Woori Bank combined for 1,748 points to take silver behind India, which scored 1,761. Vietnam finished third with 1,745.
Yang also won bronze in the women's 10-meter air pistol team event on Nov. 5, giving her one gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the championships.
Oh, the women's 10-meter air pistol gold medalist at the Paris Olympics, said, "It's meaningful because we achieved this result by each doing our best in our respective roles."
Nam added, "We achieved this result thanks to the strong performances of my teammates."
National team coach Ma Seo-yoon said Yang's individual gold medal would be an important foundation for her continued development.
However, the coach expressed disappointment over the team silver.
"The team silver medal is very disappointing. We will prepare in various ways to respond to the rapid improvement of India and Vietnam," Ma said.
(This article was produced with the assistance of AI. — Ed.)
