Good Emmons: Katerina claims shooting gold. (Photo credit: Getty)
(BEIJING, August 9) -- A dazzling first day at Beijing 2008 got off to a storming start with seven gold medals seized by competitors in five separate sports and challengers in a further 13 sports beginning their Olympic quest.
The pace was set by the first gold medalist of the Games,24-year-old Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic, who claimed a new Olympic record in the Women's 10m Air Rifle of 103.5 points in the final, which gave her an overall total of 503.5. Emmons also broke the Olympic qualification record with a perfect score of 400.
The silver medal went to Russia's Lioubov Galkina and the bronze to Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia.
Home-favorite and defending champion Du Li of China finished a disappointing fifth, while World No. 1 Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany failed to reach the final -- however China didn't have long to wait to claim its first shooting gold of the Games.
Twenty-two-year-old Pang Wei took the Men's 10m Air Pistol gold, with the Republic of Korea's Jin Jong-oh claiming silver and Kim Jong-su collecting bronze for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Emmons' Czech teammate David Kostelecky stands in first place after the first three qualification rounds in the Men's Trap. Italian shooters, Athens 2004 silver medalist Giovanni Pellielo and Erminio Frasca are one target behind, with the two remaining qualification rounds continuing tomorrow morning, August 10. The final round begins at 3:00 p.m. local time (UCT/GMT +8).
Heave: China's Chen XieXia hoists gold. (Photo credit: Getty)
Pang Wei wasn't China's first medalist of the day -- that honor went to 25-year-old world record holder Chen Xiexia, who won the 48 kilogram Weightlifting competition with a new Olympic Record total score of 212kg. Turkey's Sibel Ozkan won the silver medal with 199kg, and Chen Wei-Ling of Chinese Taipei seized bronze with 196kg.
Defending gold medalist and previous Olympic Record-holder Nurcan Taylan of Turkey bombed in the Snatch, which knocked her out of the competition.
Spaniard Samuel Sanchez captured Cycling gold in the Men's Road Race. The two-time World Champion out sprinted Italy's Davide Rebellin in a tight finish. Rebellin took silver with the bronze medal going to Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland.
America seized gold, silver and bronze in the Fencing Women's Individual Sabre with reigning Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis defeating teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 in the final to retain her crown, and Rebecca Ward beating Russian fencer Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 to claim the bronze medal. Reigning world champion Elena Nechaeva of Russia crashed out early on, while Athens 2004 silver medalist Tan Xue of China lost in the quarterfinals.
Magnificent Mariel: Zagunis grabs fencing gold for USA. (Photo credit: Getty)
Alina Alexandra Dumitru of Romania defeated Cuba's Yanet Bermoy with an ippon in 1:20 to win gold in the Judo Women's -48kg final. Japanese defending champion Tani Ryoko defeated Lyudmila Bogdanova of Russia, also with an ippon, to claim a bronze medal.
The legendary 33-year-old joins an elite list of Olympians to win medals at five consecutive Games, having struck gold in Athens and Sydney, and silver in Atlanta and Barcelona. Paula Belen Pareto of Argentina defeated Pak Ok-song of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to win the other bronze medal.
In the Men's -60kg contest, Choi Min-ho from the Republic of Korea won gold by defeating World No.1 Ludwig Paischer of Austria with an ippon in 2:14. Choi took just four seconds to beat World No. 2 Dutch judoka Ruben Houkes in the semifinal. Houkes took a bronze, with Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan claiming the other bronze medal.
Away from the medals, 13 other sports began on Day 1.
Records tumbled at the Water Cube as the Beijing 2008 Swimming competition splashed into style with Michael Phelps of the USA setting a new Olympic record of 4:07.82 in the heats for the Men's 400m Individual Medley. Also through to Sunday (August 10) morning's final are Ryan Lochte (USA), Gergo Kis (Hungary), Alessio Boggiatto (Italy), Brian Johns (Canada) and Thiago Pereira (Brazil).
Five swimmers broke the old Olympic Record of 1:00.01 in the Men's 100m Breaststroke. Alexander Dale Oen of Norway was the top finisher with a time of 59.41. Japan's Kitajima Kosuke, Hugues Duboscq of France, Australian Brenton Rickard and Cameron van der Burgh of South African also fractured the previous best.
Jensen Larsen from the United States leads the eight qualifiers in the Men's 400m Freestyle preliminaries clocking 3:43.10. Favorite for the event, Grant Hackett of Australia, came in at an unexpected fifth fastest qualifier for the final, which will be held at 10:24 a.m. local time (UCT/GMT + 8) on Sunday, August 10.
Another US swimmer, 15-year-old Elizabeth Beisel finished first in the heats of Women's Individual Medley with a time of 4:34.55, ahead of compatriot World record holder Katie Hoff. Stephanie Rice (Australia), Alessia Filippi (Italy), defending Olympic champion Yana Martynova (Russia), Li Xuanxu (China), Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) and Hannah Miley (Great Britain) will contest Sunday's final.
The Beijing 2008 Basketball tournament tipped off with six women's round-robin preliminary matches.
In group A, Australia comfortably beat Belarus by a 19-point margin, 83-64 with Boomers captain Lauren Jackson netting 18 points. Asian Champion Republic of Korea edged out World No. 4 Brazil 68-62 in overtime, and Russia beat Latvia 62-57.
Mali gave New Zealand a surprise run for their money in group B -- leveling the scores briefly in the final quarter at 64-64, before the Kiwis ran out winners, 76-72. China edged out Spain 67-64 in another close encounter, and tournament favorites the USA thrashed the Czech Republic 97-57 in the final group game of the day.
The Beijing 2008 Women's Football tournament continued with 1-0 group game wins for Sweden, Germany, the United States and Norway. Brazil defeated the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2-1, while Canada and China drew 1-1.
In the Women's Volleyball tournament, there were 3-1 pool A wins for Italy, who edged out Russia and Serbia, with World No. 1 Brazil recording a straight sets win over Algeria. In pool B, defending Olympic champion China defeated Venezuela, Cuba beat Poland in straight sets and the USA beat Japan 3-1 in the final game of the day.
In Women's Handball, there were opening game wins for France, Hungary, Romania, Norway and Germany.
Elsewhere, the opening day saw the start of competition in Artistic Gymnastics, Equestrian Eventing, Rowing and Sailing, and opening rounds of the Olympic Boxing and Badminton tournaments.
Those are the highlights from Day 1. There are 15 more days like this to come -- so hold on to your hats, folks -- it's going to be a thrilling 16-day ride.
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