China thump South Korea to bag the first gold medal of Paris Olympics

China won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

Chinese pairing of Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao clinched the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Huang and Sheng - the reigning world champions - accumulated a score of 632.2 to advance to the gold medal match.

They faced Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-Jun of South Korea, who finished second in qualifying with a score of 631.4.

Huang and Sheng battered the South Korean pair of Keum Ji-Hueyon and Park Ha-Jun in the gold medal match on Saturday, winning the final 16-12, forcing the Koreans to settle for the silver medal.

In the bronze medal match, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev defeated the German pair of Anna Jansen and Maximilian Ulbrich by a comprehensive margin of 17-5.

This was Kazakhstan's first medal at Paris 2024.

A total of 28 mixed teams took part in the qualifying round on Saturday morning, where the Indian pairing of Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta failed to achieve the qualification mark for the medal rounds by a mere point.

Ramita-Arjun finished sixth at the end of the qualification round, this is the best finish for an Indian in an air rifle shooting event since Abhinav Bindra’s fourth-position finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The other Indian pairing of Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh finished 12th with a score of 626.3.

All four Indian shooters will get another shot at glory on Sunday when they compete in the qualification round of the 10m Air Rifle individual event.