CHINA’S Yang Qian and Yang Haoran won the 10m air rifle mixed team gold at the Tokyo Olympics yesterday.

Both of the shooters have won a medal in previous matches, with Qian as the women’s gold winner and Haoran finishing third in the individual events.

The U.S. duo of Mary Tucker and Lucas Kozeniesky won silver as mixed team air rifle shooting made its Olympic debut.

In this new event, two qualifying rounds narrow the field down for two head-to-head matchups, one for gold and one for bronze. Tucker and Kozeniesky actually trailed compatriots Alison Weisz and men’s air rifle gold medal Will Shaner in the first round of qualifying. Weisz and Shaner were fifth; Tucker and Kozeniesky seventh. Weisz and Shaner finished sixth in the second round of qualifying, not enough to make the medal matches.

For the head-to-head matches, the four shooters each take one shot simultaneously. On each team, the two shooters’ shots are combined.

The team with the highest score collects two points; in the event of a tie, each team gets one.

China took the first two points by 0.1 points, with Yang Qian and Yang Haoran firing 10.5 and 10.3 to Tucker’s 10.5 and Kozeniesky’s 10.2. The Americans rallied to take the next round to tie the match at 2-2.

Tucker and Kozeniesky also qualified for their individual finals, where each shooter finished sixth. The Russian Olympic Committee took bronze with a 17-9 win over South Korea. (SD-Agencies)