New Delhi: China won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics 2024 on Saturday after beating South Korea in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team final at Chateauroux in Paris. The Chinese pair of Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao defeated the Korean duo of Kim Jihyeon and Park Hajun 16-12 in the final to bag the first gold medal for their country in shooting at the Paris Games.
The Chinese pair of Huang and Sheng earlier finished first in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team qualification round with 632.2 points. South Korea finished second in the qualification round with 631.4 points to make it to the final. There was not much separating the two teams during the qualifying round but the Chinese pair showcased their quality in the final.
Huang and Sheng lost the first round in the final but bounced back strongly to never fall behind again as they went on to beat the Korean pair of Jihyeon and Hajun comfortably, in the end, to finish on the top of the podium. Sheng, the silver medallist in the individual 10m air rifle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Huang, a two-time gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships, kept their composure in the final to overcome the challenge from the Koreans.
The Korean pair of Kim and Park started the final dominantly as they won the first round 20.6-20.3 before the Chinese pair bounced back to bag the next three rounds to take a 6-2 lead. The Koreans gave the Chinese pair a mighty scare by winning two straight rounds at 8-14 but Huang and Sheng held their nerves to eke out a 16-12 victory.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev defeated Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 in the bronze medal match to win the bronze medal in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event. Alexandra and Islam staged a massive upset in the bronze medal match as Germany were the clear favourite to finish third after missing the top two spots in qualification.
Who won the 1st medal at the Paris Olympics 2024?
Kazakhstan won the first medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 after Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev’s win against the German pair of Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich in the bronze medal match of the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event. Le, ranked 33rd and Satpayev, ranked 95th in the world, were far from favourites against the German pair but punched above their weight to finish third.
The Day 1 of the Paris Olympics 2024 got underway on Saturday with several athletes competing across sporting disciplines. The first gold medal of the Paris Olympics was won in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team shooting event. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today