Asian Games | China overturns 11-point deficit to win men's 10m air pistol team gold

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three shooting gold medals were decided at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, with China staging a dramatic comeback from 11 points down to claim the men's 10m air pistol team gold.

The men's 10m air pistol team event featured a strong field, with China, South Korea and India among the medal contenders. With a large number of entries, qualification was carried out in two groups.

Indonesia emerged as a surprising contender in the first group, with Muhamad Iqbal Raia Prabowo scoring 589 points and Sulthanul Aulia Maruf 583. China's Bu Shuaihang and Xie Yu posted 583 and 578 respectively, leaving Indonesia with an 11-point lead after the first group.

The duel between China's Hu Kai and Indonesia's Wira Sukmana became the focus of the second group. Hu shot a steady 292 points over the first three series, while Sukmana managed 284, cutting Indonesia's lead to three points.

The contest tightened in the second half, with Hu finishing on 582 points. Sukmana recovered, but needed a 10 on his final shot to secure the title, he scored a nine and finished with 571. China and Indonesia were tied on 1,743 points, with China taking gold on the higher number of inner tens, 70 to 57. Indonesia settled for silver, while Japan took bronze with 1,730 points.

After helping China complete the comeback, Hu said he had not known the exact scores at the start of the competition.

"There were ups and downs during the match, and when things weren't going well, I just tried to make adjustments," Hu said.

In the individual final, Uzbekistan's Vladimir Svechnikov took gold with 244.3 points, while Hu and Bu claimed silver and bronze respectively.

In the skeet mixed team event, China's Jiang Yiting and Lu Jianlin both delivered strong performances to win gold with 52 hits. South Korea took silver and India bronze.

It was Jiang's third gold medal of the Games, following her victories in the women's skeet team and individual events on Wednesday.

"My first Asian Games were in Hangzhou, where I won one gold, one silver and one bronze. This time I made a big step forward, and I'm really satisfied to have won three gold medals," Jiang said.