South Korea Takes Asian Games Silver in Mixed Team Skeet
Lee Jong-jun and Jang Kook-hee earned South Korea’s first shotgun medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, finishing one point behind China in the mixed team skeet final.
South Korea won the silver medal in the mixed team skeet event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, as Lee Jong-jun and Jang Kook-hee delivered the country’s first shotgun medal of the competition.
The Korean pair scored 51 points in the final at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, Japan. China’s Lyu Jianlin and Jiang Yiting claimed gold with 52 points, matching the world-record score, while India finished third with 44.
The result gave South Korea its sixth shooting medal through the first five days of the sport’s program. The delegation had previously collected five medals across pistol and rifle events, making the mixed skeet silver its first success in a shotgun discipline at these Games.
Skeet competitors shoot at clay targets released from two structures positioned on opposite sides of the range, known as the high house and low house. In the mixed team final, each athlete takes four shots per series, giving each two-person team eight possible points in every round.
Four teams started the medal final. Qatar was the first eliminated after the third series with 18 points. China led at that stage with 23, narrowly ahead of South Korea on 22 and India on 21. The Korean team then erased the gap, drawing level with China at 30 after the following series. Both leading teams hit all eight targets in the next round to keep the contest tied.
China regained a one-point advantage in the penultimate series, moving ahead 45-44 after Lee missed twice. India was eliminated at that point and secured bronze, leaving South Korea and China to decide the top two places in the final round.
Jang missed her second attempt in the last series, but South Korea still hit seven targets to finish on 51. China briefly left the door open when Lyu missed his second target. Jiang then needed to convert all four of her attempts to prevent a shoot-off, and she did so to seal China’s victory by a single point. The gold was Jiang’s third of the Games.
Despite narrowly missing the title, Lee and Jang added a significant result to South Korea’s shooting campaign. Their silver broadened the team’s medal haul beyond pistol and rifle and came after a final in which the Korean duo stayed within one target of the eventual champions through the closing stages.