Park Ha-jun (26, KT) led the South Korean shooting team's second consecutive day of medals by capturing a bronze in the men's 10m air rifle team event through a late surge.

The national team—composed of Park Ha-jun, Shin Min-gi (27, Changwon City Hall), and Kwon Hyeop-jun (25, Seosan City Hall)—combined for a score of 1,884.2 points in the men's 10m air rifle individual preliminary and team event held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on the 21st.

South Korea finished third behind China (1,899.0 points) and India (1,890.1 points) to secure the bronze medal.

Following Ban Hyo-jin's (Daegu Public Facilities Management Corporation) bronze medal in the women's 10m air rifle individual event the previous day, the South Korean shooting team claimed medals for two days in a row.

Engaged in a tight race for bronze with Indonesia, South Korea overturned the rankings when the three athletes combined for 316.5 points in the final sixth series.

In particular, Park Ha-jun spearheaded the late comeback by shooting 105.6, 105.2, and 106.1 points consecutively across the last three series.

Reflecting on the match after it ended, he said, "I was nervous during the first three series and couldn't pull the trigger well. Still, I managed the game well today and caught the rhythm at the end. I also had aspirations for the final, so I thought, 'I need to shoot now.'"

With this achievement, Park added another Asian Games medal following his silver medals in the men's 10m air rifle individual and team events, as well as a bronze in the mixed team event at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.

However, he finished seventh in the highly anticipated individual final.

After shooting 9.8 with his first shot in the final, Park dropped to last place in eighth with a total of 51.4 points after his first five shots.

He later climbed to seventh to avoid the first elimination, but became the second eliminated shooter with a total of 145.7 points after 14 shots.

"Since this is my second Asian Games, I wanted to show a better performance than the last tournament, so it's a pity that my results weren't as good as back then," Park said, adding, "I have another match tomorrow, so I'll aim for the gold medal."

He continued, "Just because the Asian Games are over doesn't mean my career as an athlete is finished. I will work hard again through this tournament to return as a more developed, upgraded, and mature athlete."

Shin Min-gi, who reached the individual final in his first Asian Games, ran in fourth place with 104.7 points through his first 10 shots, but his ranking subsequently dropped, finishing sixth with a total of 166.2 points after 16 shots.

Shin said, "It is so much fun (to participate in the Asian Games) and it almost feels like starting shooting all over again. Preparing for this competition gave me the feeling that I am truly living an athlete's life now. My mindset will likely change when preparing for future competitions, and this tournament will be of great help to my athletic career."

Kwon Hyeop-jun, who finished 28th in the individual preliminaries but contributed to the team bronze, expressed, "I will work hard to achieve good results in the remaining 50m events."

Ban Hyo-jin (19) and Park Ha-jun, who captured individual and team bronze medals respectively, will compete in the women's and men's 10m air rifle mixed team event on the 22nd to vie for South Korea's first gold medal of this competition.
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)