Korean Woman Wins Clay Shooting Gold

The former “queen of clay,” Sohn Hye-gyeong (30, Changwon Cycle Racing Corporation) made a dazzling comeback with a gold medal in the women’s double trap event of the 49th World Shooting Championships.

Sohn Hye-gyeong scored 106 points (out of 120) in the women’s individual double trap event held at Luze Shooting Range in Zagreb, Croatia on July 31, beating Li Yuxiang of China, who scored 104 points. Lee Bo-na (age: 25, Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps), who is the current national champion and 2004 Athens Olympics silver medalist in the clay event, scored 103 points to grab the bronze.

Sohn Hye-gyeong first represented Korea in 1994 during her senior year at Busan Hyehwa Girls’ High School. In May 1996 she scored 111 points to set the Korean record at the women’s double trap of the Chairmanship Tournament and won two medals in events, including the individual skeet-shooting event at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

She fell into a long slump, however, after injuring her right eye during practice in 1998. In 2004, she had to look on as her junior Lee Bo-na won a silver medal and took her position as the first-ranking Korean woman shooter at the 2004 Athens Olympics – a competition where Sohn failed to enter.

Sohn Hye-gyeong started training last summer, and came to represent Korea once again for the first time in a year and a half in this January. In the last four national competitions, she outperformed Lee Bo-na and retained her number one spot. It is the first time ever that Korea won the gold at the clay event of the World Shooting Championships, which is held every four years.

An official of the Korea Shooting Federation said, “Considering that there are usually only six to eight woman participants in the clay event, it is a remarkable result.”

It was the first gold Team Korea won in the adults’ competition. Including the juniors’ competition, Korea currently holds two golds, five silvers, and four bronzes on the ninth day of the competition.

kimsk@donga.com