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BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- China
grabbed five Olympic gold medals in the first two days at Athens Olympic
games, a good start for the country¡¯s gold rush in Athens.
Third in the 2000 Olympics, China sealed Day 1
success when Tian Liang and Yang Jinghui won the men¡¯s synchronized 10m platform
finals. Earlier, Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia won the women¡¯s synchronized 3m
springboard finals.
Their success came after China won the first two
events of the day in shooting.
Olympic debutante Du Li clinched the first Athens
gold in the women¡¯s 10m air rifle shoot with an Olympic record of 502.0 points,
beating a host of elite markswomen including top-ranked Lioubov Galkina of
Russia and world and European champion Katerina Kurkova from the Czech Republic.
The 22-year-old student entered the 10-shot final
with 398 points as a joint second and was edged into fifth after opening the
final with 9.4 points.
¡°I was nervous about the first shot, but as the
final went on, I regained my calmness,¡± she said.
The Chinese rejoined the title race with 10.6 and
10.8 points. But she did not overtake Galkina until the last shot, firing a 10.6
against the Russian¡¯s 9.7. Galkina took the silver while Kurkova claimed the
bronze.
Wang Yifu, a six-time Olympian and, at 44, the
oldest athlete in the Chinese sports delegation, added 10m air pistol gold to
his Olympic medal collection which includes a 1992 gold, three silvers and a
bronze.
Wang edged out world record holder Mikhail Nestruev
from Russia by 0.2 points for a winning total of 690 points, a new Olympic
record.
¡°I¡¯m extremely excited at the victory,¡± said a teary
Wang, who collapsed and passed out after missing the gold by 0.1 point in the
1996 Olympics.
China¡¯s perfect two-for-two start on the first day
of the shooting competition underscored the confident predictions of Chinese
officials, who had said their team should win up to 10 medals in the 17 shooting
events.
However, the Chinese delegation warned against any
complacency despite the flying start on the opening day.
¡°We currently lead the gold medal table, but we
should keep level-headed,¡± He Huixian, the spokeswoman of the Chinese
delegation, told reporters at the Main Press Center on Sunday. ¡°The Olympics has
just started, we still have a long way to go.¡±
He added that the joy in the four-gold triumph had
been diluted by the loss in women¡¯s weightlifting 48kg class, where China had
been most certain of winning the gold.
Li Zhuo, who held the world records of both the
snatch and the clean and jerk before the Olympics, was upset by Turkish Nurcan
Taylan on Saturday night.
¡°We underestimated our opponents,¡± said He. ¡°China
used to dominate the women¡¯s weightlifting, but the dominance has been
supplanted by the emergence of many powers,¡± he added.
On Sunday, Chinese
female judoka Xian Dongmei claimed the 52kg title, beating Japanese Yuki
Yokosawa in less than one minute in the final.
Xian, 29, gold medalist of both France and
Hamburg Super A Tournaments in 2004, won the final by pressing Yokosawa, 24, the
bronze medalist of the 2003 Osaka world championships, to mat for more than 25
seconds. Enditem | 
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