China's Yang Qian wins first gold medal of Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Yang won the 10m women's air rifle final with an Olympic record score of 251.8, ahead of Russian Anastasiia Galashina on 251.1 and Switzerland's Nina Christen on 230.6.
Published : Jul 24, 2021 07:55 IST
China's Yang Qian, 21, won the 10m women's air rifle final at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. Yang won with an Olympic record score of 251.8, ahead of Russian Anastasiia Galashina on 251.1 and Switzerland's Nina Christen on 230.6.
Galashina led the race for the gold in the final until she cracked under pressure and signed off with her lowest score of 8.9 for a total of 251.1.
Yang responded to the pressure by firing 9.8 to snatch the gold with an Olympic record of 251.8.
Norwegian Jeanette Hegg Duestad had set an Olympic qualifying record of 632.9 to reach the final but finished just outside the medals.
Earlier, India's shooting campaign began on a dismal note with Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failing to qualify for the final in the women's 10m air rifle event.
World No. 1 Elavenil finished 16th in the qualification round with a score of 626.8 and Apurvi finished lower at 36th with a score of 621.9. Only the top eight qualify for the final.
Elavenil had scores of 104.3, 104.0, 106.0, 104.2, 103.5, 104.5 in her six series of shots and was in the top 10 for a brief period of time. Apurvi had series of 104.5, 102.5, 104.9, 104.2, 102.2, 103.6 and was never really in contention for a place in the final after a poor second round.
(with inputs from Reuters)