China started strongly at the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi, India, winning three of the four titles on offer on day one of the event.
Olympic champions Sheng Lihao and Xie Yu were victorious again in the men's 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol respectively, while Huang Yuting and Camille Jedrzejewski, Olympic silver medallists in the women's 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol, won gold today too.
Huang set a new world record in the final of the women's 10m air rifle with a total of 254.5.
Women's 10m Air Rifle
It was a stellar day for Huang Yuting, who led from start to finish in the women's 10m air rifle as she set a new final world record of 254.5. It counts as a new world junior record too.
Huang, who missed the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in a head-to-head with Ban Hyo-jin, made amends, finishing the first competition stage with a total of 106.2, 0.9 in front of her closest rival, India's Sonam Uttam Maskar.
The gap continued to grow as the rest of the field fell - Huang's teammate Han Jiayu fell into fifth place, ahead of Indian Tilottama Sen, Anna Janssen of Germany and Japan's Misaki Nobata.
Kwon Eun-ji was the unlucky fourth-placed athlete. Meanwhile, Huang had extended her lead to 2.1 heading into the final round. With two scores over 10, the gold was hers, ahead of Maskar, while Oceanne Muller from France took the bronze medal.
Men's 10m Air Rifle
Sheng Lihao survived a late scare to claim the men's 10m air rifle title. The Chinese athlete was amongst the front runners from the start, just ahead of Austria's Martin Strempfl while India's Arjun Babuta was firmly in the lead.
Babuta and Sheng would make it clear into first and second as their teammates Du Linshu and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished seventh and eighth. Danilo Sollazzo finished sixth, but the table would soon turn on its head.
1.2 points separated all of the top five, but the long-time leader Babuta was the one to falter with scores of 10.1 and 9.8. India's best hopes for a gold medal today were dashed in just a matter of minutes.
It left the door open for Sheng to lead, as Strempfl finished fourth and Czech Republic's Jiri Privratsky took the bronze.
Sheng's lead was now 0.5 into the last two shots after Istvan Peni from Hungary started to shoot with great accuracy in the elimination stage. A strong ending was not quite enough to win the gold medal, as the Olympic champion finished on a total of 251.4 to Peni's 251.3.
Men's 10m Air Pistol
Olympic champion Xie Yu was victorious again, beating his fellow medallists Federico Nilo Maldini and Paolo Monna in the men's 10m air pistol final.
Xie and Robin Walter from Germany were the two clear leaders heading into the elimination stage - and no one could come close to them in their battle for gold. The Chinese athlete would take the lead with just three athletes left in the competition. Walter's form would drop for the rest of the shots and it was Xie's total of 244.6 that would take the title, with the German finishing on 243.3.
The battle out front was close, but Maldini was comfortably in no-man's land in third place, claiming the bronze ahead of his Italian teammate Monna. Bulgaria's Samuil Donkov achieved his third-highest ISSF World Cup career finish in fifth, while Republic of Korea's Lee Won-ho, Bugra Selimzade of Turkiye and Arjun Singh Cheema from India were sixth to eighth.
Women's 10m Air Pistol
Camille Jedrzejewski was the only non-Chinese winner today in New Delhi, gaining gold by a comfortable margin.
Those hoping to see a Chinese title sweep would have been disappointed to see contenders Jiang Ranxin and Li Xue finish sixth and seventh, ahead of Nigar Nasirova of Azerbaijan. India's medal hopes were also dashed as Rhythm Sangwan was just edged out for the bronze medal, finishing a place in front of Surbhi Rao.
What was never in doubt was the French athlete's lead, opening with a lead of 0.8, which would extend to 3.4 points by the end. Jedrzejewski finished with a total of 240.8 for the victory, followed by Liu Heng Yu of Chinese Taipei on 237.4. It was Egypt's Hala El-Gohari who took the bronze medal.
Both Liu and El-Gohari recorded their best ISSF World Cup results to date.