Cheongju 2018: Livestream and schedule announced

Live coverage for the Cheongju 2018 World Shooting Para Sport Championships has been announced alongside the final schedule. The competition takes place 4-11 May in South Korea.

All 13 finals events from the Cheongju Shooting Range will be shown live at Paralympic.org/shooting, and will begin the journey for many athletes on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Daily highlights and more coverage will also be available on World Shooting Para Sport’s Facebook and Twitter pages; and on YouTube.

The complete schedule is available at https://www.paralympic.org/cheongju-2018/schedule-and-results.

Cheongju 2018 will see 225 athletes from 46 nations compete for medals in four pistol and nine rifle events, as well as team events, with many returning medallists from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

South Korea will have the biggest field of shooters with 31, including four Rio 2016 medallists. Two-time Rio 2016 medallist Geunsoo Kim is one of the strongest to secure medals for his home country, and his first ever major gold medal could come on home range. He will compete in the R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2), R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2) and R9 (mixed 50m rifle prone SH2).

Kim captured R5 silver at Rio 2016, after being knocked off the top of the podium by Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk is hot off a victory in the event from this month’s Grand Prix in Szczecin, Poland, and will feature an interesting match-up come May.

Kim will also try to improve on his bronze from the R4.

R9 will be contested at a World Championships for the first time in Cheongju, after the International Paralympic Committee approved the discipline to be added to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games sports programme.

The road to Tokyo 2020 begins in Cheongju, as it will be the first chance for athletes to secure quota places for their countries for the next Paralympics.

The last World Championships were held in 2014 in Suhl, Germany, and Cheongju 2018 will be the sixth edition.

The Opening Ceremony will officially kick off Cheongju 2018 on 3 May, and the first competition will begin the following day with three finals.