Choo Ga-eun, Whose Four-Leaf Clover Brought Luck to Korean Shooting, Says 'I Thought It Was a Dream'

Choo Ga-eun (25, Imsil County Office), who carries a four-leaf clover symbolizing good luck on her bag and attaches it to her pistol, has become a lucky four-leaf clover for South Korean shooting.

Choo captured the gold medal with a score of 246.3 in the individual final of the women's 10m air pistol event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range in Japan today (the 23rd).

It was a precious gold medal won by surpassing China's Shen Yaoyao (silver with 241.3 points) and Zhang Lanxin (bronze with 221.6 points), who had stood like a wall against the South Korean national team for the past three days.

Meeting reporters after the match, Choo said, "I thought it was a dream," adding, "I like four-leaf clovers. I have a huge number of related items. It's meant to wish for good luck."

Choo's gold medal is the South Korean shooting team's first of this competition, following three days of harvesting only silver and bronze medals.

It is as if Choo, who loves four-leaf clovers, has brought good luck to South Korean shooting.

When Choo's final shot secured the gold medal, Kang Yeon-sul, President of the Korea Shooting Federation, and federation officials rose from their seats in the stands and cheered.

Chang Gap-seok, head coach of the shooting national team, shed tears during a post-match interview, seemingly overwhelmed by a mix of emotions. Contrary to expectations that she would be extremely excited after securing the gold medal, Choo remained calm even after the match.

She said, "I never thought I would set a record. Even after setting it, I couldn't believe it," adding, "Even now, it doesn't really sink in that this is the Asian Games."

She reflected, "It just felt like coming to Japan to play an international competition. There wasn't much pressure, and I think good results came because I approached it calmly."

Armed with this composure, Choo showed overwhelming performance starting from the preliminary round for the individual event, which also served as the team event.

She finished first overall in the preliminaries with 582 points, setting a new Asian Games preliminary record, and combined with Oh Ye-jin (IBK Bank) and Kim Bo-mi (Busan City Hall) to win a team silver medal.

Even in the final, she took the lead from her first five shots and never relinquished the top spot.

She recorded a final score of 246.3, breaking the previous Asian record of 245.3 set by Japan's Yukari Konishi in 2017 by 1.0 point.

She also tied the Korean record set by Kim Min-jung at the 100th National Sports Festival in 2019.

Coach Chang finally felt relieved thanks to the performance of Choo, the four-leaf clover.

He said, "It was very difficult because no gold medals came out from the first day, and I was overwhelmed with various thoughts," adding, "I am grateful that Choo performed sufficiently well as expected."

Building on Choo's gold medal, the South Korean shooting team is re-aiming for its pre-tournament goal of five gold medals.

Having harvested an individual gold medal and a team silver medal at her first Asian Games, Choo will compete in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on the 25th, Chuseok, to challenge for her second gold medal.

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