Paris 2024: Yang Chao sets new Games record on way to first P3 gold

Yang Chao shattered the Paralympic record to take gold for China in the P3 - mixed 25m pistol SH1 competition, the only final of the Monday at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Yang finished with 30 points, two more than silver medallist Yan Xiao Gong of USA and three better than the previous Paralympic mark.

It was the third Paralympic gold of the Chinese shooter, the first in the P3 after finishing seventh at Tokyo 2020 and ninth at Rio 2016.

“I was surprised I won but, I am very happy that I won. I was relaxed and confident in the final," said Yang.

Gong's medal was the second-ever won by the United States in shooting Para sport at the Paralympics.

"This is my second Paralympics so going home with a silver is definitely something," Gong said.

Bronze went to South Korea's 2022 world champion Kim Jungnam, who was competing in his second event following the death of his father shortly after he arrived for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

"My father passed away a few days ago and this medal is for my father," Kim said.

Tuesday's action

The R7 - men’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 qualifying leads off the competition on 3 September. UAE's Abdulla Sultan Alaryani will be looking to retain his gold medal from Tokyo 2020, but world champion Radoslav Malenovsky of Slovakia is among those with medal ambitions of their own.

In the women’s competition, five-time Paralympic champion Zhang Cuiping of China is out to win her fourth consecutive R8 - women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 title. Star athletes including Sweden's two-time world champion Anna Benson and Slovakia's Veronika Vadovicova, who won gold in the R3 - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 on 1 September, should ensure Zhang faces stiff competition.