(Asiad) Pistol shooter vows to come back stronger after costly mistake

TOYOTA, Japan, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- After her miscue cost her team a chance to win gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan on Monday, pistol shooter Yang Ji-in said she will try to learn from the experience and come back even stronger.

Yang and her two teammates, Bong Seo-rin and Oh Ye-jin, won silver in the women's 25-meter pistol team event at Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, about 60 kilometers east of the main host city of Nagoya. With the team standings determined by individual shooters qualification scores, the trio combined for 1,735 points, ending up 1,743 points back of China.

During her qualification round, Yang did not pull her trigger within the three-second limit on the 21st of her 30 shots. The unfired shot was registered as a miss for zero points.

Given that Yang, the 2024 Olympic champion in this distance, led all shooters in the qualification with 27 inner-10s, South Korea could well have won the team gold here if Yang had taken that fateful shot in time.

Yang, who was inconsolable in the immediate aftermath of the incident, fought back tears as she discussed the situation following the team medal ceremony.

"I was so heartbroken that I didn't get to show all the things I prepared for," Yang said. "It felt like all the preparation we had as a team went to waste."

Yang, 23, entered Monday leading the qualification stage, following Sunday's initial phase.

"I put myself in a good position after yesterday, and I really wanted to do well here," Yang added. "I will try to become mentally stronger so that I will not repeat the same mistake at a big competition like this. I want to be able to show people my smiling face, not the crying one."

Yang showed a glimpse of her mental fortitude Monday, as she hit multiple inner-10s after her miss.

"I knew I still had more shots to take even after that mistake," she said. "The competition was not over, and I wanted to have a strong finish."

After Yang was done, South Korea fell from first to fourth in the team standings, with Bong still to go in the last group of shooters. And it was Bong's strong performance that lifted South Korea back into medal contention.

Bong said she had no idea where her team stood and she was not aware of Yang's score or her miscue before she took her turn.

"I just wanted to do the best I can from my position," she said. "I got a little angry at myself because I started out poorly. I was able to sharpen my focus in the latter stages."

Oh, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in the 10m air pistol event who chose to compete in the 25m event here, was the first of the three South Koreans to finish the qualification round. And with Bong wrapping up her competition and Yang still trying to pick up the pieces after her round, Oh said she was the first one on the team to learn of the silver medal.

"We all trusted each other and tried to pull each other," the 21-year-old Oh said, also choking back tears. "We all did our part under some difficult circumstances, and this is a very good outcome."

During the medal ceremony, at least, all three shooters flashed smiles. They even struck a pose on the podium -- with Bong, the shortest of the group, kneeling in the middle while Oh and Yang flanked her, with all three stretching their arms to form a giant "V."

Oh revealed it took the three teammates just five minutes to come up with the idea, right before the ceremony.

"We all cried so much because we really wanted gold here. But since we still got a medal, we wanted to have a little fun in the ceremony," Oh said, at last flashing a smile. "Seo-rin wanted to do a finger gun pose, but I told her that was too old. We settled on the V pose."

The senior member of the team at age 32, Bong said she will forever cherish the experience of training and competing with Yang and Oh.

"I kept telling the girls how much fun I was having getting ready for the Asian Games," Bong said. "I thanked them so many times for helping create such wonderful memories. I hope they feel the same way. I know I will get to be teammates with other shooters down the road, but being around these two will stay with me for the rest of my life."