TOYOTA, September 22 — South Korea won silver in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event at the Asian Games on Tuesday, the country’s first silver in the discipline after two bronze medals earlier in the competition. Ban Hyo-jin and Park Ha-jun finished second with 502.9 points in the final at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, roughly 25 kilometers east of the main host city of Nagoya, Japan. The Chinese tandem of Wang Zifei and Sheng Lihao took gold with a world record total of 507.1 points.
Japan claimed bronze with 439.7, and India finished last among the four teams with 376.3.
A final decided by a single shot
The format left little room for error. Each shooter fired 15 shots in Stage 1, for 30 shots per team, with a perfect score of 10.9. After those initial 30 shots, South Korea sat third at 314.3 points.
China led at 315.7, Japan was second at 314.9, and India trailed at 312.3. India was eliminated first after the opening series of Stage 2.
From there, South Korea and Japan traded the lead as China pulled away. With one shot left per shooter in the second series, South Korea was 0.8 point behind Japan. Park, who had earlier shot a 9.9, came through with a 10.9 to help South Korea hold off Japan by 440.1 to 439.7.
China was well ahead at 443.6. In the final series, Ban and Park went 10.7 and 9.7, while Wang and Sheng hit 10.8 and 10.7 to all but clinch gold for China.
Two bronzes, then silver
Both South Korean shooters had already reached the podium in Toyota. Ban won bronze in the women’s 10m air rifle individual event, and Park won bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle team event. Park’s silver is his second straight Asiad medal in the mixed team event, after a bronze three years ago.
For Ban, this is a first Asian Games, arriving after a 2024 Olympic gold and a 2025 world title in the 10m air rifle individual event. South Korea is still waiting for its first shooting gold of these Games, having set out to bring home at least five.
The near-miss in the mixed team final leaves that target intact but unmet, with the remaining rifle and pistol events still to come. The event was reported by Yonhap and published by The Korea Times on September 22, 2026.
