By Amlan Chakraborty
CHATEAUROUX, France (Reuters) -Social media-savvy teenaged duo Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao upheld a Chinese shooting tradition as they won the first gold of the Paris Olympics in the 10 metres air rifle mixed team event on Saturday.
Chinese shooters have claimed their country's first gold of the Games more times than athletes in any other sport and that trend continued with Huang and Sheng triumphing at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
Their 16-12 win, quelling a late challenge from the South Korean pair of Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun, ensured China remain the only country to win the gold in the mixed team event introduced in Tokyo three years ago.
"When the Koreans were catching up, I was not paying too much attention to it because I was first trying to stabilise myself," Sheng, 19, told reporters.
"I told myself I need to do what I must do."
Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev gave Kazakhstan the bronze with a 17-5 romp against the German pair of Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich.
Three years after China's Yang Qian and Yang Haoran won the gold in Tokyo, reigning world champions Huang and Sheng topped the qualifying round ahead of their Korean rivals to signal their intent.
The gold medal contest was not really a cakewalk though despite them racing to a 14-8 lead after the 11th round.
Keum and Park staged a late comeback to reduce the gap at 14-12 but the Chinese pair prevailed in the end.
JITTERY HUANG
Huang said she was jittery when the Koreans started breathing down their neck.
"I was quite tense to be honest," said the 17-year-old, whose puppy hair-clips are quite popular among her social media fans back home.
"Deep inside, I was telling myself to focus on my movement and the competition, and get some positive energy."
Huang and Sheng will be gunning for a second gold in Paris but said the team event result would have no bearing on their individual rifle competitions.
Korea's Park was not too unhappy with the silver.
"We could not overcome the Chinese shooters, but we are very satisfied with our medals," said the bespectacled 24-year-old.
Teammate Keum also had no issues finishing behind their Chinese opponents.
"I respect the Chinese athletes and I think they did a great job of winning the gold.
"I personally think we also did great to get this silver."