Park Jin-ho of South Korea celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men’s 50-meter rifle 3 positions (SH1 classification) event at the Paris Paralympics at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, France, on Sept. 3, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
PARIS, Sept. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Shooter Park Jin-ho has become South Korea’s first double gold medalist of the Paris Paralympics.
Park won the men’s 50-meter rifle 3 positions (SH1 classification) title with the Paralympic record score of 454.6 points at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris, on Tuesday. Dong Chao of China finished with 451.8 points for silver.
Park had earlier won the 10m air rifle standing gold medal.
In the 50m 3 positions event, shooters competed in kneeling, prone and standing positions. The bottom two shooters were eliminated after the 40th shot. The lowest-ranked shooter was eliminated after each of the next four shots, leaving only Park and Dong to take the 45th and final shot.
Park had a comfortable 2.6-point lead over the Chinese shooter at that point and finished with a 10.0-point shot to set the Paralympic record.
Park was sixth after the kneeling portion of the final but jumped to third after shooting from the prone position.
He grabbed the lead with 404.6 points after the standing position and stayed out in front the rest of the way.
Park will go for his third gold medal in the mixed 50m rifle prone event Thursday.
Park’s was the only South Korean medalist Tuesday. The country now has four gold medals, seven silver medals and eight bronze medals to rank 14th.
Also on Tuesday, South Korea secured five medals in table tennis, with Seo Su-yeon, Jang Yeong-jin, Cha Soo-yong, Jung Young-a and Moon Sung-hye reaching the semifinals in the men’s and women’s singles.
There are no bronze medal matches at Paralympic table tennis, and all semifinal losers will be awarded bronze medals.
(Yonhap)
