Olympic debutant Liu Yukun won gold in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions, marking China's fourth shooting gold medal at the Paris Games.
CHATEAUROUX, France, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's Liu Yukun bagged a gold medal in his Olympic debut after winning the men's 50m rifle 3 positions here on Thursday.
Qualified first with 594 points, the world record holder registered 463.6 points in the final for the victory. Four-time Olympian Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine added another silver to the one he won in men's 10m air rifle at the Rio Olympics with 461.3 points.
Swapnil Kusale of India took the bronze, India's third medal of the color in shooting.
Liu came to the Paris Olympics with a hot form, having taking two gold medals in the World Cups, including one in Baku, Azerbijian where he set the world record of 468.9 points.
He had a solid start into the final but a 49.7-point series in the standing position saw him trail by 0.1 point behind Kulish before the elimination stage started. He managed to overtake the Ukrainian in the leading position after three shots, though, and a perfect 10.9 in the next and penultimate shot put him on a safe 1.8-point cushion. The 27-year-old scored a 9.9 to wrap up his victory.
This is the fourth shooting gold for China at the Paris Olympics. Sheng Lihao took an individual gold in men's 10m air rifle, two days after winning the first gold of Paris 2024 with his pair Huang Yuting in the mixed team event on Saturday. Xie Yu won men's 10m air pistol on Sunday. ■
