[National Sports Festival] Two ‘unofficial world records’ in one day… New shooting record ‘plenty of harvest’

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Dae-ho Lee = In the shooting competition at the 107th National Sports Festival, two new Korean records were set in one day, surpassing the world record.

Kim Kang-hyun (Kangwon National University) and Go Eun (Busan City Hall) competed in the men's college division's 10m air pistol and women's general division's 25m pistol finals, respectively, in the shooting competition held at the Changwon International Shooting Range in Gyeongsangnam-do on the 17th, and won gold medals, setting a new Korean record and an unofficial world record.

Although it is not recognized as a world record because it is not an International Shooting Federation (ISSF)-sanctioned competition, it has proven its world-class skills.

The main character who opened fire first was Kim Kang-hyun. Kim Kang-hyun, who set a new competition record (588 points) in the finals and came in first place, scored 246.6 points in the finals, comfortably beating Hyun Jae-yoon (Tongmyung University, 240.2 points) and took the top spot.

This is a new record that broke the previous Korean record (246.2 points) set by Park Dae-hoon in 2018 by 0.4 points, and even surpassed the world record (246.5 points) set by Kim Song-guk (North Korea) at the 2019 Doha Asian Championships by 0.1 points.

Kim Kang-hyeon, who won two competitions in addition to the gold medal in the team event (1,732 points), completely shook off the regret of missing the Taegeuk mark by finishing fourth in the national selection competition for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games last April on his final stage in college.

Kang-Hyeon Kim said, "I felt a greater sense of accomplishment from breaking the record than winning the National Sports Festival. In the short term, my goal is to participate in the Los Angeles Olympics to be held in two years, and in the long term, I want to become a player who can maintain his skills for a long time."

On the same day, in the women's 25m pistol final, Go Eun set another record by scoring 44 points.

It surpassed the Korean record set by Kim Min-jung in 2018 and the world record (43 points) set by Esha Singh (India) at this year's Munich World Cup by one point.

Go Eun, who suffered from poor physical condition due to a cold, remained in 11th place until the 57th round of the finals and was on the verge of elimination, but showed incredible concentration in the last three rounds and took the last train to the finals in 7th place. In the finals that followed, he became the star of a new record with an unwavering routine.

Go-eun said, "I lost confidence because of the cold, but I played the game with the same routine as usual. I am happy to set a new Korean record and an unofficial world record, and to even be interviewed for the first time in my career. In the future, I want to be selected for the national team and participate in international competitions."

The shooting range of this National Sports Festival has been achieving a record-breaking harvest since the second day of the opening.

On the first day, the 16th, in the general men's 10m air rifle finals, Gong Seong-bin (Boeun County Office) set a new Korean record with 635.3 points, and two records were added that day, creating a total of three new Korean records (including two unofficial world records) over two days.