On the afternoon of August 5, Beijing time, the men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol final of the shooting event at the 2024 Paris Olympics began at the Chateauroux Shooting Center. In the competition, China's Wang Xinjie and Li Yuehong stayed until the final stage of the knockout round, and in the end, Li Yuehong, 34 years old and third Olympic participant, won the gold medal with 32 points, Korea's Cho Yong-jae won the silver medal with 25 points, and Wang Xinjie won the bronze medal.
In the qualifying round held on August 4, China's Li Yuehong ranked first with 588 rings and Wang Xinjie ranked second with 587 rings to advance to the finals. In the finals, the contestants first perform a basic shot of 15 rounds, divided into three groups of 5 rounds, which must be completed quickly within 4 seconds. This is followed by a knockout round, with the last finisher eliminated after every five shots. 1 point is awarded for hitting (9.7 rings and above), and 0 points are awarded for missing (9.7 rings or less). The final world record in this event is 39 points set by Li Yuehong in 2023.
In the first group of 5 shots, Wang Xinjie hit all five shots and scored 5 points, and then Li Yuehong, who came out, also scored five shots, and they were also the only two players in the game. In the second group of 5 shots, Wang Xinjie hit 5 shots and 3 shots, and the total score came to 8 points, Li Yuehong also scored 3 points, with a total score of 8 points and Wang Xinjie continued to tie for the first place. In the third group of 5 shots, Wang Xinjie hit 3 shots in 5 shots again, with a total score of 11 points, and Li Yuehong hit 4 shots in 5 shots, with a total score of 12 points and ranked first alone. Wang Xinjie is tied for second place with Germany's Peter and Korea's Cho Yong-jae.
The game then entered the knockout round, the first group of 5 shots, Wang Xinjie 5 shots and 2 shots, the total score came to 13 points, Li Yuehong also hit 5 shots and 2 shots, and the total score came to 14 points. Korea's Cho Yong-jae ranked first alone with 15 points, Lee Yuehong tied for second with Ukraine's Krostilov and Germany's Peter, and Lee Yuehong was fifth. Spinella of Italy, who finished sixth, was eliminated.
In the second group of 5 shots in the knockout round, Wang Xinjie hit 4 shots in 5 shots, and the total score came to 17 points. Li Yuehong also hit 4 of 5 shots, and the total score came to 18 points. After this round, Ukraine's Krostilov was eliminated, and Korea's Cho Yong-jae continued to lead with 19 points. In the third group, Wang Xinjie hit 3 of 5 shots, with a total score of 20. Li Yuehong hit all 5 shots, and the total score came to 23, surpassing Zhao Yongjae with 21 points and coming to the first place. Wang Xinjie and Peter, who also scored 20 points, played a group of 5 shots in the extra game, Wang Xinjie was 4 out of 5, Peter was eliminated in 2 out of 5, and Wang Xinjie continued to stay in the game.
In the fourth group of shooting, Wang Xinjie scored 3 out of 5, with a total score of 23 points, ranking third and winning the bronze medal. Lee Yuehong went 4-of-5 to reach 27 in total, widening the gap over Korea's Cho Yong-jae to three points. In the last group of shooting, Li Yuehong hit all 5 shots, with a total score of 32 points and won the gold medal! Cho Yong-jae hit only 1 of his last 5 shots and won the silver medal with 25 points.