Olympic champion Liu surpasses world record for 2nd gold at China's 15th National Games

Reigning Olympic champion Liu Yukun broke his own world record by 1.2 points to win the men's 50m rifle three positions title at China's 15th National Games on Friday, claiming his second gold medal of the competition.

The 28-year-old Shaanxi shooter fired a remarkable 470.1 points in the final, surpassing the 468.9 mark he set at the Baku World Cup in May 2024. He finished 6.7 points ahead of Zhao Wenyu of Tianjin, while Du Linshu of Hebei took bronze.

"Winning or losing wasn't that important to me," Liu said. "I had only one goal - to beat the world record and push the mark beyond 470."

"At the Paris Olympics, I was already aiming to break it, but I was too nervous at the time," he added, referring to his Olympic-winning total of 463.6. "I couldn't accomplish it back then, so this feels like making up for that regret."

Liu, who led qualification with 595 points, dominated from start to finish in a final stacked with Olympic champions, including Tokyo 2020 gold medalists Yang Haoran and Zhang Changhong, and Paris 2024 winner Sheng Lihao, who finished 10th in qualification and missed the final.

The Shaanxi native, who also won the men's 10m air rifle team gold on Wednesday, built a 1.7-point advantage after the kneeling stage and never relinquished control. Despite his commanding performance, Liu described it as "mediocre," revealing he had once scored 474 in training. "That was with a sub-10 in the last shot," he said with a smile, suggesting there is still room for improvement.

The final saw Yang exit early after 40 shots, while newcomer Shen Yuchen of Zhejiang placed seventh. Defending champion Zhang advanced to fifth, and Liu's teammate Li Muyuan narrowly missed the podium by 0.6 points.

Earlier Friday, Shanghai rallied to defeat Hebei 16-8 in the women's 10m air pistol team final, while Guangxi edged Zhejiang 16-14 in a close bronze-medal match.

Olympic champion Jiang Ranxin, who took bronze in Thursday's individual event, credited her teammates Shen Yiyao and Zhang Qi for the team victory.

"Honestly, I didn't perform very well today," said Jiang, the Tokyo 2020 mixed team champion. "It was thanks to my teammates that my occasional bad shots didn't affect the result."

The rifle and pistol competitions at the National Games will conclude on Saturday with the 50m rifle three positions and 10m air pistol mixed team finals.