Sixteen-year-old South Korean shooter takes Olympic gold by .1 of a point in dramatic shoot-off

CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — Sixteen-year-old South Korean shooter Ban Hyojin found out just how fine the winning margin in her sport can be as she won a gold medal by one-tenth of a point on Monday.

Ban beat China's Huang Yuting, who's only one year older, to the gold medal by 0.1 in a shoot-off after they were each tied on 251.8 points from 22 shots, a score that had given both an Olympic record.

When she realized she'd won the gold, Ban looked up to the ceiling and took a deep breath before securing her rifle. She seemed to be shaking with emotion as she hugged her coach and wiped away tears while posing with her fellow medalists.

Ban might have thought she'd thrown the gold medal away after having a comparatively comfortable lead of 1.3 points with two shots to go. All but one of her shots until then had scored at least 10 points of a possible 10.9, but she then shot 9.9 and 9.6 to allow Huang to close the gap and force the one-shot shoot-off. Ban scored 10.4 to win that to Huang's 10.3.

Huang won her second medal of the Paris Games after she and teammate Sheng Lihao won gold in the 10-meter mixed team air rifle on Saturday, the first gold medal awarded in any sport at the 2024 Olympics.

Switzerland's Audrey Gogniat took the bronze medal Monday when she was eliminated on 230.3. Sagen Maddalena was fourth for the United States, which has yet to win a shooting medal at the 2024 Olympics.

The men's 10-meter air rifle competition concludes later Monday.

___

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games