BANGKOK, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Jiang Qiuyan from China clinched the first gold medal of the 24th Universiade here on Thursday in women's 20km walk.  

    The Chinese women's gymnasts defended their team title, gifting China the second gold at the Universiade where Chinese swimmers clinched two silver medals.

Jiang Qiuyan from China clinched the first gold medal of the 24th Universiade on Thursday in women's 20km walk. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Jiang, who had been crowned at the last Universiade in Izmir, Turkey, defended her title with a time of one hour, 35 minutes and22 seconds in Ayutthaya Province, 60 kilometers north to Bangkok.

    "I am very excited now," said Jiang, who won the Asian Athletics Championships title last month in Jordan. "I am satisfied with the result, though it is not as good as the record I set two years ago."

    "Now I will focus on training again, and do my best to attend the Beijing Olympics," the 24-year-old said.

    Shen Chunde, the Chinese member of the Technical Committee of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), told Xinhua that Jiang is in top five female walkers in China and has a chance to participate in the Beijing Olympics.

    With three world champions, Zhang Nan, Fan Ye and Zhou Zhuoru in the squad, China could have easily snatched the women's team gold medal, but their low form put the victory far from a convincing one.

    All the Chinese fell from the beam and Zhou also tumbled on the uneven bar before they rallied from vault and floor to win by 174.7 points, 0.7 points more than the sliver medalist Ukraine.

    Chen Yin won the silver medal in the men's 200m butterfly in the pool while the women's team took the second silver for China in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

    The Chinese women's team, which was aiming for the gold medal with several Olympians, lost to the United States in a close contest. The U.S. timed 3:40.85, 0.53 second faster than China, while Germany finishing on third by 3:42.68.

    China also pocketed a bronze medal from the men's 4x100m relay in the track-and-field competitions.

    The host Thailand stunned the world by grabbing the men's 4x100m relay gold medal in 39.15 seconds, followed by South Africain 39.20 and China in 39.30.

    South Korea swept three out of four taekwondo gold medals on offer today to top the medal table on the first day of competition.Jung Sun Young won the women's 72kg category, Heo Jung Nyoung the men's over 84kg while Hyun Kyoung Hwa the women's over 72kg.

    The only taekwondo gold medal the South Koreans missed went to Iran's Yousef Karami in the men's 84kg class.