Yang Ji-in wins gold in women's pistol shooting

CHATEAUROUX, France -- Yang Ji-in captured the gold medal in the women's 25-meter pistol shooting event at the Paris Olympics on Saturday for South Korea's third shooting gold of the competition.

Yang defeated Camille Jedrzejewski of France 4-1 in a shoot-off after the two finished the 10 series of shots in the final all tied at 37-37 at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris.

This was the eighth gold medal overall for South Korea at the ongoing Olympics.

In the final, the shooters first took three series of five shots each for a total of 15 shots, and a score of 10.2 points or higher counted as a hit.

At the end of the fourth series, or 20th shot, the shooter with the lowest score was eliminated to take eighth place. At the end of each series that followed, the lowest-ranked athlete was knocked off.

The last two remaining shooters competed for the gold with the 10th series of shots.

Yang held a three-point lead over the field with 13 hits after the first three series. The lead dwindled to one point at 27-26 after the seventh series, with Jedrzejewski and Manu Bhaker of India both putting pressure on the South Korean.

With Bhaker eliminated and then Veronika Major of Hungary also dropping off, Yang and Jedrzejewski were knotted at 33-33 going into the final series of shots.

They matched each other with four hits in that final set of shots, which set up the shoot-off.

The French shooter missed her first three shots while Yang scored a hit on two of her first three. Yang then clinched the gold medal by picking up another hit with her fourth shot.

Yang, 21, is the third South Korean to medal in this event, joining the 2012 gold medalist Kim Jang-mi and the 2021 silver medalist Kim Min-jung.

Yang said afterward she was happy to raise the South Korean national flag, Taegeukgi, to the highest position at the medal ceremony.

"Now that I've shown that I am the No. 1 shooter in the world, I will try hard to maintain this position and not come down," Yang said. "I will try to raise our flag high once again in Los Angeles (for the 2028 Olympics)."

Yang admitted she felt jitters going into the shoot-off and said, "I didn't want to just concede the top spot and have all the hard work I've put in go to waste. I kept telling myself it would all work out well."

This has been a wildly successful Olympics for the South Korean shooting team. Kim Min-jung's silver was the lone medal for South Korea in Tokyo, but the country has already won three gold medals and two silver medals so far here with two more days of competition left.

The five total medals have matched South Korea's record for the most at a single Olympics. The country also won three gold medals and two silver medals at the 2012 London Olympics.