Paris Olympics 2024: Serbia's Zorana Arunovic- Damir Mikec clinch gold in 10m air pistol mixed team

The Serbian pair defeated Turkish pair 16-14 in the final at Paris Olympics 2024.

A compelling contest of twists, turns, highs, lows, hope, despair and hope renewed produced scenes of heady emotion for a fully engaged audience as Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec beat the Turkish pairing of Sevval Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec 16-14 to win the 10m air pistol mixed team title. It was Olympic competition at its finest.

At the Tokyo 2020 Games Zorana Arunovic, 37, and Mikec, 40, finished in the cruellest of positions – fourth. Now they have gold – and now Turkiye has a historic first Olympic shooting medal, albeit of silver hue.

When the result became clear the highly-charged Zorana Arunovic, flushed with joy, tearful with joy, blindly grabbed hold of her team-mate and the two collapsed to the floor in celebration before being engulfed by their team and supporters.

Meanwhile the Turkish pair – who had equalled the Olympic record in the previous day’s qualification – shook hands and Dikec, 51, patted his 24-year-old partner consolingly on the shoulder before they moved over to engage themselves sportingly in the emotional whirlpool taking place before them.

Earlier at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre 22-year-old Manu Bhaker, who on Sunday became the first Indian woman to earn an Olympic shooting medal as she took bronze in the individual final, added a second in partnership with Sarabjot Singh as they beat the Republic of Korea’s individual women’s gold medallist Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho 16-10.

The Serbian duo gained and lost the lead twice in the final before reclaiming it at the crucial moment with the highly charged Zorana Arunovic, who won the world title in 2010 and is current world record holder, finishing strong after a nervous and uncertain start.

The tension and silence in the hall was palpable as the two pairs, who had swapped the lead throughout, arrived at the decisive series after a 10.8 from Zorana Arunovic – whose first five shots had included sub-par efforts of 8.9, 9.2 and 8.5 – had enabled Serbia to draw level again at 14-14.

This time, although she slipped to a final 9.4, her partner balanced it out with a 10.7 to register a total of 20.1 that proved sufficient for gold.

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Tarhan, who had recovered her momentum admirably after a tension-ridden 7.3 which allowed Serbia to take a 12-10 lead, held firm with a final 10.2. But her 51-year-old team-mate Dikec, who had shot with superb consistency in the previous four series, produced a 9.1 with the final effort.

For a moment it looked as if Zorana Arunovic, who had not reached Sunday’s individual final despite being world No.1, might spontaneously combust. With Serbia 6-2 down, their coach – Zorana Arunovic’s 43-year-old sister Jelena, a former World Championship and World Cup competitor – used her one-minute time-out option early to make some urgent corrections.

The result was not immediate as her younger sister subsequently shot 8.5 as Turkey extended their lead to 8-2, but the Serbian pair then won five of the next six series to take a 12-10 lead.

Turkey responded to lead 14-12, but could not close the contest out as a 10.5 from Mikec, who won individual silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and Zorana Arunovic’s 10.8 – just 0.1 from perfection – took the final to its tumultuous climactic moment.

So Serbia succeed China, who were winners of this event when it made its Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago. The expected Chinese challenge at 2024 failed to materialise as Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Jiang Ranxin, now partnered by Xie Yu, finished eighth in qualification, and their second pairing of Li Xue and world champion Zhang Bowen missed the final by one place.

“As you could see, there was so much emotion,” said Zorana Arunovic. “It was a real roller-coaster. We went down 8-2, but we have known each other for such a long time – for 20 years. We knew we could rely on each other to give our best, and we put our faith in each other.”

“We said, ‘Let’s go’ and we managed to break the Turkish team by coming back equal with them. It was a nerve-racking ending but Damir gave us the final shot. He believed in us and this moment more than I did – he was the one who pushed us towards this.

It was really stressful but I hope we put on a good show for people who have come here. Not many people usually come to watch shooting but I hope the audience enjoyed a good display of shooting.”

Referring to his individual silver in Tokyo, Mikec added: “This is one step up. This is what I dreamed of. Everyone in Serbia said to me, ‘You had silver in Tokyo, then you will win gold in Paris’.

“But you have to filter that. Only you know what needs to be done to get here. I always believed and I had a really good preparation. I reached the final in the individual (he finished seventh in the men’s 10m air pistol). I didn’t manage to get a medal there, but I used all my experience today. Today the shiniest thing in this arena will be the medals round our necks.”

Tarhan commented: “We are really excited, because it was the first time with a medal for Turkiye in shooting. It’s silver, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what colour the medal is, we are saying this always. We wanted to be a champion, as everyone (does).”

On the pressure of the gold coming down to the last shot, she added: “He had so much pressure on his heart. My heart was beating so hard, and I can feel it. It’s really hard to shoot in the final of the Olympic Games.”

Dikec said: “I’m very happy. An Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, and in Los Angeles (at the 2028 Olympic Games), hopefully it’s a gold medal.”

Bhaker, who will also contest the women’s 25m pistol, scored consistently high in the bronze-medal match, slipping seriously only once as she registered 8.3 in the eighth series.

India began to run away with the competition to reach 14-6, giving themselves four chances to earn one more decisive double-point win.

But Oh and Lee made them wait as they responded to take the next two series, with Oh scoring successive 10.8s, before India did enough to get back into decisive winning mode and spark massive celebrations from their flag-waving supporters who had been amply encouraged earlier by the Indian coach.

While Bhaker’s final effort of 9.4 was below par, Singh did enough to tip the contest with his concluding 10.2 as Lee scored 9.5 and Oh 9.0. “It’s great,” said Bhaker. “The first medal was really good and again the fight was really tough.

“It was neck and neck with each shot, like with my first bronze. But the last shot was Sarabjot’s, so big up to him.”

Asked whether this made up for Tokyo 2020, when a pistol malfunction cost her the chance of a medal, she responded: “Tokyo is long gone for me now. I just focus on the next thing.” In her case that will mean Friday’s 25m pistol qualification.

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