China picks up first gold medal of Tokyo 2020 in Womens 10m Air Rifle

China's Qian Wang focused her breathing and aiming to secure the Tokyo 2020 Olympic's first gold medal. 

The Women’s 10m Air Rifle had quite a close finish at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Saturday. China’s Qian Yang won the gold medal, setting a new Olympic record scoring 251.8 at the Asaka Shooting Range. Anastasiia Galashina of the Russian Olympic Committee took second, with Nina Christen of Switzerland taking the bronze. 

In qualifications, eight women made it through to the final, with Norwegian Jeanette Duestad leading the competition with 632.9 points setting a new Olympic qualifying record. South Korea’s Heemon Park finished second 1.2 points behind, and American Mary Tucker coming in third. Tucker and teammate Alison Weisz made the final two for Team USA that kept out defending Olympic champion Ginny Thrasher, who came up short and was designated an alternate. Weisz didn’t make the top eight and finished 14^th scoring 626.9 points. 

After the first knockout, Galashina finished first, with Duestad down by four-tenths of a point. With Park out of the competition, Tucker sat on the bubble to make it into the next round or fall out of the fight for a podium finish. She shot a 10.9 while Eunji Kwon shot a 10.3 that tied them at 145.4 for a shoot-off. The two both shot a 10.4 that forced them to do it again to determine a winner. Tucker shot a 10.8 while Kwon scored 10.5, taking another South Korean shooter out of the running. 

While it was a thrilling fight, Tucker came up short in the third elimination to finish sixth. Yang stayed at the top through two rounds, with Christen trailing in second. 18-year-old Oceanne Muller was the last teen to be out of the competition, with Galashina taking back the lead as one of four left shooting. Duestad was on the bubble and scored 10.4 to end up in the fourth position. 

Galashina, Yang, and Christen remained with four shots left to determine which one received a color medal. Christen took the bronze with a final score of 230.6 with Yang trailing Galashina by a tenth. With two shots to go, it was still very close with a tenth of a point differential on shots. It came down to the last one and with a two-tenths lead, Galashina blew it with an 8.9, and Yang scoring a 9.8 to take the gold medal.