Former Special Forces Soldier Seo Hoon-tae Hits South Korea's First Gold

Seo Hoon-tae, a sharpshooter and former Special Forces soldier, has captured the South Korean delegation's first gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games.

Seo suffered a spinal cord injury in a fall accident in 2008 while serving as a Special Forces non-commissioned officer, but began his second act in life when he picked up a gun again in 2018.

Through intense training of pulling the trigger 200 times a day, he won a bronze medal at the Paris Paralympics two years ago and finally fired a golden bullet in Nagoya yesterday.

Advancing to the 10m air rifle standing final in second place overall, Seo briefly yielded the top spot to a Thai competitor early on, but immediately reclaimed the lead by landing consecutive shots in the center of the target, never relinquishing his position thereafter.

Surpassing the Thai athlete and national teammate Park Seung-woo, he became the South Korean delegation's first gold medalist of the tournament.

[Seo Hoon-tae / National Para Shooting Athlete: While I used to operate behind the scenes to protect the country (as a soldier), I think I now work hard with the mindset that my face represents the Republic of Korea (as a national athlete).]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.