"Thought It Was a Bronze"... Dramatic Comeback Secured by 10.9-Point Bullseye [AG Video]

"There were many things I lacked today, but thanks to Hyo-jin filling in those gaps, we achieved a good result."

These were the words of Park Ha-jun (KT), who overturned the match against Japan with a decisive final shot, after winning the silver medal in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games today (September 22).

Ban Hyo-jin (Daegu Metropolitan City Public Facilities Management Corporation) and Park Ha-jun scored 252.6 and 250.3 points, respectively, in the final held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Japan, combining for a total of 502.9 points to finish second behind China (507.1 points).

This marked the first silver medal for South Korean shooting, which had previously won only two bronze medals during the first two days of the competition.

Park Ha-jun, who led the team to a bronze medal by showing strong resilience in the final stages of the men's team preliminaries the previous day, wrote another dramatic story today.

After finishing their first single shots in the bronze medal-deciding section, South Korea stood at 399.0 points, edging 0.2 points ahead of Japan (398.8 points).

However, in the ensuing shots, while Ban Hyo-jin scored 10.0 points and Park Ha-jun scored 9.9 points, Japan combined for 20.9 points to surpass South Korea and rise to second place with 419.7 points.

Yet, the match was decided on the final shot.

Ban Hyo-jin scored 10.3 points, and Park Ha-jun hit a 10.9 with his 21st shot.

Japan's Misaki Nobata and Naoki Hanakawa scored 10.5 and 9.5 points, respectively, ultimately leaving them 0.4 points behind South Korea (440.1 points) as they settled for the bronze medal.


Park laughed as he said, "I thought we were going to finish with bronze. I took the last shot thinking I should just do my best, and it landed precisely in the 10.9 ring. Right after hitting the 10.9, I thought I should brag to Hyo-jin and show off. As soon as I came out, I boasted, 'You won the silver medal thanks to oppa.'"

Ban Hyo-jin also said, "When I was lacking, oppa shot well, and when oppa fell slightly behind, I worked hard to shoot well, so we complemented each other. It was a day with great timing. I'm glad we won a lucky silver medal because oppa shot a 10.9."

Just before the final shot, Ban Hyo-jin demonstrated quick thinking by directly calling a timeout.

Having endured pain to stand at the shooting range during the individual event two days prior, she bought time to steady her posture, which had been disrupted by a cramp in her left foot, while Park Ha-jun also used the moment to regulate his breathing.

The two are likely to compete together in the mixed event at the ISSF World Championships to be held in Doha, Qatar, in November.

Park vowed, "It's a pity that we missed out on the gold medal, but we will definitely beat China next time. We are likely to team up again for the mixed event at the November World Championships, and we will aim for the real gold medal then."

Ban Hyo-jin also stated, "I will trust oppa and rely on each other to work even harder then. Today, I'm going to eat delicious yakiniku. I'm going to ask oppa to buy me the expensive stuff."


(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.