▲ South Korea's Ban Hyo-jin aims at the target during the preliminary round of the women's 10m air rifle individual event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Japan on the 20th.
South Korean shooting athletes Ban Hyo-jin and Kwon Yu-na have advanced to the final of the women's 10m air rifle individual event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Ban scored 634.9 points in the preliminary round of the women's 10m air rifle event held today (the 20th) at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Japan, finishing second overall behind Wang Zhifei, who scored 636.8 points.
Kwon finished in 8th place with 633.3 points, securing her ticket to the final, which is contested by the top 8 athletes.
Cho Eun-byul recorded 627.6 points, finishing 19th and failing to advance to the final.
In the team event, combining the scores of Ban Hyo-jin, Kwon Yu-na, and Cho Eun-byul resulted in a total of 1,895.8 points, placing them 4th behind China (1,904.2 points), India (1,898.0 points), and Japan (1,897.1 points), thus missing out on a medal.
Ban, who celebrates her 19th birthday today, will challenge for another gold medal in the individual final scheduled for 2:30 PM.
Having conquered the women's 10m air rifle individual events at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2025 International Shooting Sport Federation World Championships, if Ban wins this event, she will achieve a shooting "Grand Slam" by collecting gold medals from the Olympics, World Championships, and Asian Games.
Meeting with reporters after the individual preliminary and team events today, Ban said, "I will try to just do what I have been doing in the final. I will celebrate (my birthday) hard."
Meanwhile, North Korea was unable to compete in today's events due to issues regarding prior approval from the Japanese government required for the use of ammunition.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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