China's Yi bags air rifle title for Games’first gold
It was what all of us waited for, the first gold at the London Olympics. This was achieved by China’s world number one Yi Siling. She bagged it in the women’s 10m air rifle competition at London’s Artillery Barracks yesterday.
In a contest which went the full round Poland's Sylwia Bogacka took silver and the bronze went to Yu Dan of China.
Yi, 23, who won the title at the 2010 world championships in Munich, had a total winning score of 502.9, 0.7 points ahead of Bogacka, on 502.2. Yu finished with 501.5.
Defending Olympic champion Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic finished fourth.
Yi, who was well off her own world record of 505.6, said it felt good to be the first gold medal winner of the 2012 Games.
Immediately after her victory Yi Siling beamed: “It's very exciting. I am very happy. I'm very grateful to China. And to my mother and father whom I love very much,” she said.
“I am pleased, not nervous like I was in the competition. I have been up since five this morning. There was a lot of pressure on me,” she added.
And Yi said being Olympic champion would change her life.
“I feel very changed after this victory. I feel like I've grown up and then I think this is going to bring some changes to my life as well.” Bogacka finished top of qualifying earlier with Yi in second and the two were locked together in a tight battle in the final but the Chinese held her nerve under severe pressure, taking advantage of some slips from the Pole.
The top eight competitors from the qualification round reached the final, shooting a further 10 shots, each fired individually under timed conditions.
The score in the final is added to the score achieved in the qualification round to determine the winner.