Yang Qian of China in action in the women’s 10m air rifle competition at the Tokyo Olympics on July 24, 2021 at Asaka Shooting Range. REUTERS/Ann Wang
TOKYO–China’s Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 10-meter rifle competition on Saturday.
The silver went to Russian shooter Anastasiia Galashina and the bronze medal to Switzerland’s Nina Christen.
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.