China win two gold medals in Tokyo
Olympics
By
Reuters
| Jul 24, 2021
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.
China's second gold medal
China's Hou wins 49-kg weightlifting gold
China's Zhihui Hou won the gold medal in women's 49-kg weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics, bagging the second gold for China in as many competitions, with a comfortable win over Indian and Indonesian medalists.
Hou broke the Olympic records in all three categories of snatch, clean and jerk, and total with 210 kg, three kilos short of her own world record. She also holds the world record with 96 kg in snatch, which she didn't attempt in Tokyo.
Mirabai Chanu, India's only athlete in weightlifting, took home the silver medal. Chanu still holds the world record in clean and jerk of 119 kg.
In Rio 2016, Chanu was one of two athletes in her category who didn't register a total, after failing all three of her clean and jerk attempts.
Nineteen-year-old Indonesian lifter Windy Cantika Aisah clinched the bronze medal with 194 kg in total.
Making her Olympic debut, medal hopeful U.S. lifter Jourdan Delacruz failed all three attempts at clean and jerk. Japan's veteran lifter Hiromi Miyake also failed similarly, and both failed to register a total.
There are two Olympic lifts: the clean and jerk, and the snatch. Each athlete is allowed three attempts at each lift. The best lift in each is combined to determine the overall total. Athletes must successfully attempt the snatch before proceeding to the clean and jerk.
Earlier on Saturday, China's Yang Qian had claimed the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics in the women's 10-metre rifle competition.