(LEAD) (Asiad) Kim Ji-eun gets rifle bronze for S. Korea's 9th shooting medal

NAGOYA, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- Kim Ji-eun earned bronze in rifle shooting at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, the country's ninth medal in the sport at the competition.

Kim scored 348.4 points for the women's 50-meter rifle 3 positions at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, east of the main host city of Nagoya.

Han Jiayu of China won the gold with an Asian continental record score of 359 points, holding off fellow Chinese, Zhang Liyuan, by 0.2 point.

Kim's is South Korea's first medal in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions since Jeong Mi-ra's silver in 2014.

"I am stunned. I don't know what to say," Kim, 23, said when informed of her drought-ending medal. "We are seeing the changing of the guards in shooting. I am proud to have proven that young shooters can be pretty good, too."

In the eight-shooter final, shooters fired 10 shots each from the kneeling and prone positions within a 22-minute time limit.

Then the competition continued with the standing position. After the first 10 shots, the two lowest-ranked shooters were eliminated.

From that point on, subsequent eliminations occurred after single shots until only two shooters were left standing after 34 shots.

Kim scored 103.3 points in the kneeling series, the second-highest score. She then added 103 points in the prone series. She ranked second overall at 206.3 points, 0.2 behind Zhang, entering the standing phase.

Kim fell to fifth place at 256.3 points after the first five shots from the standing position but was only 0.5 point back of third place.

Kim climbed to fourth place over the next five shots at 307.6 points, 0.2 back of Tilottama Sen of India.

Kim then soared to second place after hitting 10.5 points to reach 318.1 points.

But Kim only managed 9.5 points with her next shot to drop back to fourth at 327.6 points, now 0.3 point behind Sen. Kim needed to outscore Sen with the next shot to avoid elimination, which she did, striking 10.5 to jump to third and secure at least the bronze medal, while Sen was eliminated.

Kim trailed Zhang by 0.7 point for the silver medal position. Kim hit 10.3 points, but it was not enough to improve her position. Zhang hit 9.9 to move to the top at 348.7, while Han shot 9.5 and ended up just 0.1 point ahead of Kim at 348.5 points in second place. It eliminated the South Korean from the gold medal contention.

Han then scored 10.5 points for her record-setting gold medal.

"Once I secured the bronze medal, I felt relieved, knowing I had won something at least," Kim said. "But then again, it was tough to finish just 0.1 point behind the runner-up at that point."

Kim, who revealed she picked up shooting because she won a game of rock, paper, scissors for one of the last remaining spots on her middle school club team, said she is just getting started.

"I want to develop into a medal contender for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics," she said. "

Through seven days of shooting, South Korea has one gold, four silver and four bronze medals. The shooting competition will end Thursday.