Olympic debutant Zhang wins China' s first Rio Olympic gold

Source:Xinhua Published: 2016/8/8 6:40:10

Team China final got the first gold at the Rio Olympics, thanks to 25-year-old Zhang Mengxue who claimed title of women's 10m air pistol title here on Sunday.

Zhang finished the eight-member final with 199.4 points. Vitalina Batsarashkina of Russia took home the silver with 197.1 points. The bronze medal went to Anna Korakaki of Greece, who scored 177.7.

Due to the change of rules by the sport's world governing body ISSF, all winning marks at the finals of the Rio Olympics will be recognized as new Olympic records, so does Zhang's 199.4 points in the women's 10m air pistol final.

The Chinese shooting team gave a hard try on the opening day of the Rio Olympic shooting competition, but neither Du Li nor Pang Wei finished with a gold in their respective final on Saturday.

Two-time Olympic champion Guo Wenjun was considered as the top favorite, but the veteran didn't survive the qualification stage. Guo shot 378 points, 6 points under the qualification line, and finished her third Olympics with the 30th place.

On women's trap, 26-year-old Australian Catherine Skinner beat New Zealander Natalie Rooney 12-11 to win the title, which made her the second Olympic champion from Australia in the trap women after Suzanne Balogh in 2004.

Rooney won New Zealand's 100th medal in any sport in Olympic history.

Corey Cogdell from the United State needed a shoot-off to defeat Spain talent Fatima Galvez to take home the bronze.

"Any one of the competitors here could have won, and today just happened to be my day," said Skinner after the competition.

"There has been lots of tears and tantrums in the buildup to this. I'm sure there are plenty of people back at home saying, 'I told you so.' You just never know."

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