China has won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, but its athletes were nowhere near Paris.
The Olympic shooting range, a three-hour drive from Paris in the city of Chateauroux, was the venue for Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao to shoot for gold in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event held Saturday morning.
Huang and Sheng opened up an early four-point lead against South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun in the head-to-head for the gold medal and stayed ahead from there to win 16-12.
“My main feeling is just happiness. The match was quite hard, but being able to do a personal best performance helped a lot,” Sheng said.
The 17-year-old Huang and 19-year-old Sheng’s celebrations were initially subdued in contrast to their animated coach but they smiled and Sheng gave a thumbs-up sign on the podium when bronze
