Hosts take shooting world record at Incheon 2014

The South Korean team of Jin-Ho Park, Jae-Yong Sim and Jin-Hwa Jeon broke the R3 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1) world record on Tuesday (21 October) at the 2014 Asian Para Games.

After South Korea stormed to the top of the medals table at July’s IPC Shooting World Championships with 17 medals, including 10 gold, the trio scored 1904.7 in Incheon and picked up the individual gold and silver medal.

However it was Lee (211.6) rather than R3 world champion Park (211.0) who topped the podium with a finals Games record.

In a tense competition, Park took the lead in the first elimination round. However Lee kept her composure, waiting until the last three rounds to pull out two 10.9’s and a 10.8 to steal the lead from Park and win by just 0.6 points.

Bronze went to China’s Paralympic and world champion Cuiping Zhang (189.4) to follow on from her gold from Monday (20 October) and bronze from Sunday (19 October).

Zhang’s placing contributed to a team silver medal for her country with a score of 1896.7. Thailand (1887.2) picked up bronze.

The hosts continued their stunning form with Young-Young Jeon (211.0), also a rifle gold medallist from the Worlds, winning R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2) with a finals Asian record.

Jeon lead throughout the competition, an advantage which saved him from losing the title after a comparatively poor final round consisting of a 10.3 and 10.0.

Silver went to Thailand’s Tanong Channam (210.3), moving his team to fourth place in the shooting medals table with nine of the 15 shooting events now completed.

South Korea completed a near perfect day on the range with Geon-Soo Kim (189.1) winning bronze following his Asian record of 636.6 set in qualification.

The results bring the number of world records set so far at Incheon 2014 to three and finals world records to two. Asian records total six and finals Asian records set stand at five.

China lead the shooting medals table with a total of eight medals including three gold, three silver and two bronze, followed by South Korea who also have three gold, two silver and four bronze.

The 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games run until 24 October with shooting featuring around 80 athletes from 18 countries.