Korea's First Medalists Are Shooters Park Hajun and Geum Jihyeon... 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Silver [Paris Olympics]

The first medalists of the South Korean delegation at the 2024 Paris Olympics were shooting representatives Park Hajun (24) and Geum Jihyun (24).

The Park Hajun-Geum Jihyun pair won the silver medal after losing 12-16 to the Chinese duo Cheng Lihao and Huang Yuting in the mixed 10m air rifle final held on the 27th (local time) at the CNTS shooting range in Ch?teauroux, France.

Park Hajun and Geum Jihyun advanced to the final by ranking 2nd among 28 teams in the preliminary round held earlier. They scored 631.4 points, placing 2nd overall behind the Chinese pair Cheng Lihao and Huang Yuting, who scored 632.2 points.

The final match was conducted in a format where male and female athletes each fired one shot per round, and the team with the higher combined score earned 2 points. The match continued until one team reached 16 points first to win.

Geum Ji-hyun (left) and Park Ha-jun [Photo by Yonhap News]

In the first round of the final, Park Hajun and Geum Jihyun both scored 10.3 points, totaling 20.6 points. They took the first 2 points ahead of the Chinese team, which scored a combined 20.3 points.

However, they fell behind 2-6 after losing the next three rounds. South Korea called a timeout to try to change the momentum.

After the timeout, in the fifth round, Geum Jihyun scored the highest shot of the five rounds with 10.5 points, turning the tide. Park Hajun also scored 10.3 points, making a total of 20.8 points, narrowly leading by 0.1 points over China and securing 2 points to close the gap to 4-6.

However, they could not maintain the momentum, and by the 11th round, Park Hajun and Geum Jihyun trailed the Chinese team 8-14. They won the next two rounds to narrow the score to 12-14, but lost the 14th round by 0.4 points, giving up the gold medal. In the 14th round, Park Hajun and Geum Jihyun scored a combined 21.1 points, a good score, but the Chinese team scored 21.5 points. This was just 0.3 points short of the perfect 21.8 and was the highest score among the 14 rounds fired in the final that day by the Chinese team.

Although Park Hajun and Geum Jihyun narrowly missed the gold medal, they became the first medalists of the South Korean delegation at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Korean shooting achieved its best-ever results at the 2012 London Olympics with 3 gold medals and 2 silver medals. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, they won 1 gold and 1 silver medal, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, they earned 1 silver medal.