[Yonhap News Photo]
South Korean shooter Jin Jong-oh captured gold in the men's 50m pistol at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Jin scored an Olympic record 193.7 points in the final at Olympic Shooting Centre, rallying to defeat Hoang Xuan Vinh of Vietnam by 2.4 points.
Jin became the first shooter, male or female, to win a single event in three consecutive Olympics. It was South Korea's fourth gold medal in Rio, and first medal of any kind in shooting. Jin had finished fifth in the 10m air pistol last Saturday, with Hoang taking the gold medal.
Kim Song-guk of North Korea finished third in the 50m pistol with 172.8 points. Han Seung-woo of South Korea ended in fourth with 151.0 points.
Jin led all shooters in qualification with 567 points, but with the top eight qualifiers starting from zero in the final, Jin was stuck in the middle of the pack early on and was almost eliminated midway through.
Hoang and Kim set the pace early, with Kim hitting the perfect 10.9 with his fifth shot and taking the lead with 60.3 points after six shots.
Kim remained at the top through eight shots with 78.4 points, with Jin down in fifth at 75.9.
With his ninth shot, Jin hit a disastrous 6.6 -- almost unheard of from such a decorated shooter -- and dropped to sixth place through 10 shots at 92.1 points, facing elimination.
Jin survived with the scores of 10.4 and 10.3 points, while Vladimir Gontcharov of Russia took himself out of the contest with 7.8 and 9.2. Jin then began his improbable rally, which coincided with struggles by Hoang and Kim.
The South Korean climbed to third at 133.3 points after the 13th and 14th shots, still 3.5 points behind Hoang in first place. In the next series, Jin scored 10.5 and 10.0, while Hoang hit 10.0 and 9.3, as the gap narrowed to 2.3 points.
Jin said that 6.6 was a blessing in disguise, because it served as a wake-up call that helped him right the ship.
"I wasn't nervous but I wasn't aiming properly," he said. "I beat myself for a bit, but I regrouped and decided I should be myself again." Jin admitted he wasn't himself when finishing fifth at the 10m air pistol last weekend. The missed opportunity in his first event in Rio helped him prepare better mentally for his second and main event on Wednesday.
And once he started climbing up the leaderboard in the final, there was no stopping him. "When I got to third, I thought, 'I could at least win bronze,'" he said. "But whenever I thought like that in the past, I finished third. So I tried to focus even harder."
And that focus netted him his fourth career Olympic gold. "The Olympics is really hard," Jin said. "I can't believe I won so dramatically."
(Yonhap)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
