Nagoya: Reigning Olympic champion Ban Hyo-jin claimed bronze in the women's 10-meter air rifle shooting event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Ban, who is the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in this event, celebrated her 19th birthday with her first Asian Games medal, finishing with 230.4 points in the final held at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, approximately 25 kilometers east of Nagoya.

In a closely contested final, Hinata Taichi of Japan secured the gold with an Asian Games record score of 253 points, while Elavenil Valarivan of India took the silver with 252.4 points. The competition featured an eight-shooter final, beginning with two series of five shots, with shooters given 250 seconds per series and aiming for a perfect score of 10.9. This was followed by 14 single shots, with eliminations starting after the 12th shot and continuing every two shots until the gold and silver medals were decided.

Ban was initially in third place after the opening two series with 104.9 points, trailing Valarivan and Misaki Nobata of Japan. Despite narrowing the gap with Taichi during the final shots, Ban was unable to surpass her competitors, ultimately securing the bronze.

South Korean Kwon Yu-na, the other finalist from Korea, finished eighth with 124 points, marking the first elimination in the final. Earlier in the day, China clinched the team gold medal with a world record of 1,904.2 points, while South Korea, with team members Ban, Kwon, and Cho Eun-byeol, finished fourth with a score of 1,895.8 points.