Pistol shooter Jo Jeong-du was on target for South Korea’s first gold medal of the Paris Paralympics on Friday, winning the men’s 10-meter air pistol title.

Jo scored 237.4 points for the gold at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris, hours after Lee Yun-ri won silver in the women’s 10m air rifle event for South Korea’s first medal of the competition.

Manish Narwal of India finished in second place with 234.9 points, followed by Yang Chao of China with 214.3 points.

The eight finalists each took 10 shots first — two series of five shots — before eliminations of the lowest-scoring athlete began after the 12th shot, with the perfect score being 10.9.

Jo had 98.9 points after the initial 10 shots, trailing Yang in second place by 1.7 points.

Jo struggled early in the second phase, scoring below 10.0 on four of his next six shots after the opening stage. Through 16 shots, Jo was in third place, 0.9 point back of Narwal.

But Jo then caught fire with four consecutive scores of at l
east 10.3. He grabbed the lead at 198.9 points after 20 shots.

After shooting a 9.7 and a 9.3 with his next two, Jo finished off a comfortable win with scores of 10.8 and 8.7.

Jo’s event had SH1 classification, designated for athletes with upper and/or lower limb impairment.

Source: Yonhap News Agency