Olympics | China's Huang narrowly misses out on women's 10m air rifle gold (updated)

CHATEAUROUX, France, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shooter Huang Yuting missed out on her second Olympic gold medal by the slightest margin, as South Korea's Ban Hyo-jin was crowned the women's 10m air rifle champion on Monday.

Ban, 16, scored 10.4 points in a tense shoot-off, edging Huang by 0.1 point after the duo were tied on 251.8 points in the final, equaling the Olympic record.

Audrey Gogniat of Switzerland bagged the bronze medal in front of frenzy Swiss fans.

Huang admitted that losing by just 0.1 point was "a bit regrettable". "But it's okay. I'll keep working hard for the next time," she added.

The world championship silver medalist started well in the final, taking a 0.7-point lead before the elimination stage. However, her leading position was overtaken by Ban three series later, who produced two impressive 10.9 shots as the match proceeded.

Huang trailed thereafter. A 9.6-point shot in the penultimate series almost killed her chance to stand on top of the podium.

However, she capitalized on Ban's two sub-10 shots to force a shoot-off, a rare occurrence in an Olympic final.

"There were definitely mental fluctuations because I didn't expect to make such a significant mistake. My immediate thought was to move on quickly. I told myself to just focus on the next shot and forget about the previous one," said Huang.

Ban also confessed she didn't expect such lows shot in the final series, but added that she saw the shoot-off as "an amazing opportunity to show my gold medal in a proper way."

Speaking of her mentality before the deciding shot, Huang said: "I reminded myself not to focus too much on the outcome and to just perform well."

Huang fired first for a solid 10.3, but was bested by the 10.4 from Ban, who burst out into tears and hugged her coach tightly.

"At this young age, I felt a lot of pressure coming to France without my family and being alone. But after the match I saw my fellow countrypeople cheering for me and I felt like 'finally'," Ban explained.

Huang and Sheng Lihao set off China's Olympic campaign to a golden start, winning the Games' first gold medal with victory in the 10m air rifle mixed team event on Saturday.

Reflecting on her first Olympic journey with a gold and a silver, Huang said that she was generally satisfied.

"Competing in the Olympic Games feels tense and exciting. Generally I think I'm doing well and I've learned a lot. The biggest gain is being able to maintain composed and perform well in such a highly anticipated competition and stay unaffected in complicated atmosphere," she said.