China earned its first gold of ISSF Junior World Championships in Lima with victory on the second day of competition in the 10m air rifle mixed team event as India remained top of the medals table with two more bronzes.
Seventeen-year-old Wang Zifei, individual silver medallist last year in Changwon, and Huang Liwanlin (pictured) secured the honours with a 17-15 win over the French pairing of Romain Aufrere – who will defend two individual titles in the Peruvian capital – and fellow Olympian Oceanne Muller.
Wang, who earned senior silver at this year’s World Cup in Baku, and her 16-year-old partner, who won Asian junior gold in Changwon last season, had topped a qualifying event involving 34 teams with 634.1. The French pair totalled 631.3.
The bronze medal match was won 17-9 by the Indian pairing of Gautami Bhanot and Ajay Malik over Croatia’s Anamarija Turk and Darko Tomasevic.
Germany won the 10m air pistol mixed team event thanks to Celina Becker and Andreas Koeppl, who defeated Ukraine’s Viliena Bevz and Maksym Himon 17-9 in the final.
The German pair had won bronze in this event when the junior world title was contested at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo.
India provided both teams in the bronze-medal match. India 2, represented by Lakshita Lakshita and Parmod Parmod, secured a 16-8 victory over the India 1 pairing of Kanishka Dagar and Mukesh Nelavalli.
The United States also registered a first gold at the Championships as it won the team honours in the skeet men event thanks to two-time individual winner Ben Keller, Joshua Corbin and Jordan Sapp.
The US totalled 349, with Italy earning silver on 341 and Greece taking bronze on 337.
The skeet women team title was won by Italy's trio of Arianna Nember, Viola Picciolli and Eleonora Ruta, who totalled 326 to finish one clear of Germany, with bronze going to the United States on 323.
Day three of competition in the Peruvian capital will involve the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle and skeet finals.
The Championships will run until October 6.