China’s 34-year-old Li Yuehong, who set a world record of 39 points in winning the world title in Baku last year, added an Olympic gold to his medal collection today in imperious fashion.
A maximum of five out of five enabled him to take over the lead in the sixth series from Cho Yeongjae of the Republic of China, who dropped to two out of five.
And after Li’s team-mate Wang Xinjie had departed with the bronze medal, another maximum series left Cho knowing he could not take gold even if he matched it. As it turned out, the Korean, understandably a little cast down, only managed one hit to total 25, seven behind the now emotional champion.
In tears, Li had to be prised from his coach in order to take part in the immediate medal line-up.
Despite faltering with two out of five in his fourth series, Li showed his class as he saw out the competition with scores of 4, 5, 4 and then 5. He was unstoppable.
Germany’s World Cup Final champion Florian Peter led the European challenge and held bronze-medal position going into the sixth series, level on 18 with Li but third on bib number following the previous day’s qualification, with a one-point lead over Wang.
But after Wang had reached 20 with three hits out of five, Peter could only manage two – to his evident surprise – and thus triggered a shoot-off. Again the pressure weighed on the German after his Chinese rival managed four out of five – and two in response saw him leave proceedings with a rueful smile.
Three hits in the next series confirmed Wang as bronze-medallist, with Cho dropping one hit further behind Li. The final series turned out to be a coup de grace.
Italy’s Massimo Spinella was the first of the six finalists to leave, followed by Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine.
Li commented: “This has been an incredible experience for me and all my hard work has paid off. I am extremely happy. This is a victory not just for myself but the whole team.”
Asked about his preparation involving two weeks of military training last December,” he explained: “The Olympic Games match is like a war without bleeding. We are trained to develop a strong mindset and mentality. I used that skill in today’s match and I think it definitely helped.”
On China's overall success in shooting sport at the Paris 2024 Games, he commented: “We have made a lot of effort in our daily training and our personal living style. If you want to be a good shooter you need to be morally good and a good person. We aim for and train for that.”
Cho, who said he had had a small problem with his pistol, added: “As in the qualification, I always try to learn something from the event and that is why I can figure out my stress.
Wang said he almost cried during the Chinese national anthem.
“I’m very happy and am happy for my team-mate who got the gold medal,” he said.
“If I qualify for Los Angeles 2028 I will definitely gain a lot of experience of how to adjust my mindset during the match.”