19-Year-Old Shooting Queen Ban Hyo-jin Wins Second Consecutive World Championship Title... Hits '10.9-Point' Golden Target

Paris Olympic gold medalist and leading figure of South Korean shooting, 19-year-old Ban Hyo-jin, has claimed the top spot at the World Championships for the second consecutive time.

Ban Hyo-jin displayed great form from the preliminary round, finishing first overall in the women's 10m air rifle at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships held in Doha, Qatar.

In the final round featuring eight shooters, she staged a comeback show.

After the first 10 shots, she scored 105.4 points, trailing China's Han Jiayu by 1.1 points in second place, but showed her strong nerves in the survival format where one shooter is eliminated every two shots.

Calmly hitting the target shot by shot to pursue the leader, she tied the score at 189.9 points after her 18th shot.

Succeeding in a comeback by 0.1 points with a 10.5-point shot on her 20th attempt, Ban Hyo-jin widened the gap by hitting the maximum score of 10.9 points on her 21st shot.

She then wrapped up her final two shots with 10.6 and 10.4 points, recording a total of 253.1 points to secure a comeback victory by 0.9 points.

After winning a surprise gold medal at the Paris Olympics and capturing her first-ever top finish by defeating China's Wang Zifei at the World Championships last year, Ban Hyo-jin once again outperformed a shooter from shooting powerhouse China to become a back-to-back gold medalist at the age of 19.

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