(From left) Zhang Jueming, Li Yuehong and Lu Zhiming of China celebrate after winning the 25-meter rapid fire pistol men's team gold medal between China and Ukraine in Cairo, Egypt on October 24, 2022. Photo: AFP

China won the 25-meter rapid fire pistol men's team gold at the 2022 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships in Cairo, Egypt on Monday.

China's trio of Lu Zhiming, Zhang Jueming and Olympic bronze medalist Li Yuehong achieved a 16-6 victory over Ukraine's Maksym Horodynets, Pavlo Korostylov and Denys Kushnirov, grabbing another gold for China who lead the medal tally at the Cairo event.

China had the upper hand in most of the 11 rounds of the gold medal match, with its three shooters even finishing with a full score in the third and fifth rounds.

Lu Zhiming, 31, said that although he couldn't achieve a medal in the individual competitions, he was happy to help his team win the top medal.

"We all worked hard in training last year, which positively reflected on our performance in this world championships," Lu told Xinhua.

"Secondly, we have a strong team of managers and coaches and a good spirit of cooperation, so our focus is only on performing well," he said.

The bronze medal went to South Korea after the three defeated their Czech opponents 16-6.

The 2022 ISSF World Championships for Rifle and Pistol is held at Egypt International Olympic City complex from October 12 to Friday.

In the women's 25-meter pistol final series at the event, London Olympic champion Kim Jang-mi of South Korea beat China's Chen Yan to win the gold medal on Saturday.

Kim, who turned 30 in September, was trailing Chen by 27-28 before the last five shots in the final duel. 

She took advantage of the two missing shots of her rival to turn the tables 30-29 before holding her nerves to make the last two hits for the gold 32-31.

This was the first world title for the two-time Olympian, and the second gold medal for South Korea at the 2022 World Championships. 

Twenty-four-year-old Chen, in her first worlds appearance, had to settle for a silver, but enough to earn China's seventh Paris 2024 quota place in shooting so far.

Doreen Vennekamp, who had already won a quota place for Germany after her European Championships victory, finished third. This enabled Haniyeh Rostamiyan from Iran to qualify for the Paris Games, as one athlete could only earn one quota place for their National Olympic Committee.

In the men's 50-meter three positions competition, Ukraine's three-time Olympian Serhiy Kulish beat Pole Tomasz Bartnik 16-6 to win the gold medal. Jon-Hermann Hegg, who already secured a Paris quota for Norway in the European Championships, finished third ahead of Swapnil Kusale of India.

Liu Yukun, top finisher in qualification, obtained a quota for China despite a disappointing fifth-place finish in the ranking match.

Also on Saturday, China's Liu Jinyao came back from eight points behind to edge compatriot Zhang Yifan 17-15 in a dramatic gold medal match of men's 10-meter air pistol at the world championships.

Liu shook off a shaky start to earn second place in the ranking match, where Zhang led all the way and trailed by 10-2 in the gold medal match.

Although the 24-year-old managed to win the following three shots when Zhang failed to score more than 10.0, and cut the deficit to 10-8, he had to surrender two more points as Zhang proclaimed a comeback with a perfect 10.9.

It looked like Zhang was about to take the crown after winning another shot to make it 14-8, yet Liu tied the game 15-15 and made a superb 10.8 in the deciding shot to beat Zhang's solid 10.3. Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine finished third ahead of Lee Won-ho of South Korea. 

Another Chinese shooter Zhang Bowen was in fifth place.

The World Championships are also a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with four quota places on offer in each individual event. As one National Olympic Committee can obtain no more than one quota in any individual event, Pakistan was allocated a Paris quota with Gulfam Joseph in sixth place.

Xinhua