HIGHLIGHTS

• The Chinese came from behind to win despite a rare mistake by Qian in the early rounds, scoring in the sevens
• Qian had won the first gold of the Tokyo Olympics in women’s 10m air rifle
• Yulia Karimova and Sergey Kamenskiy of the ROC beat Taeyun Nam and Eunji Kwon from Republic of Korea to win bronze

China’s Qian Yang and Haoran Yang beat United States’ Mary Tucker and Lucas Kozeniesky 17-13 to win 10m air rifle mixed team gold at the Tokyo Olympics at the Asaka Shooting Range. Three days after winning the first gold of the Games in the women’s 10-metre rifle, the 21-year-old Yang combined with namesake Yang Haoran to win the mixed team event.

In what was a tight match, the Chinese came from behind to win despite a rare mistake by Qian in the early rounds, scoring in the sevens.

The duo fought back and in the latter stages of the competition the score was 11-11. Despite scoring no less than 9.8 throughout the competition, the Americans were beaten by the Chinese pair to the Olympic title. Yulia Karimova and Sergey Kamenskiy of the ROC beat Taeyun Nam and Eunji Kwon from Republic of Korea to win bronze.

Earlier, compatriots Jiang Ranxin and Pang Wei outduelled their Russian rivals in a riveting contest to secure gold in the 10-metre air pistol mixed team event. The Chinese pair sealed a 16-14 victory over newly crowned women’s Olympic champion Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov.

Jiang and Pang, bronze medallists in their individual pistol events in Tokyo, overcame an 8-4 deficit to lead 14-10 before the Russians staged a comeback to level the scores.The Chinese shooters, however, held their nerve to reach the 16-point mark, displaying their strong camaraderie even in the presentation ceremony where they placed the medals on each other’s necks.