The first gold of the Tokyo Olympics goes to the Chinese shooter Yang Qian
Young Chinese shooter Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympic Games by winning the women’s 10m air rifle. India’s top shooters Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan could not even make it to the finals of this event.
Russia’s Anastasia Galashina won silver and Switzerland’s Nina Kristen won bronze. Rahu Yang, who finished sixth in qualification with 628.7 points, scored 251.8 in the final. Yang opened his country’s gold account by bettering Russian Anastasia’s 251.1 points.
Earlier, Norway’s Janet Hague Duestad topped the qualifying standings with 632.9 points, a qualifying Olympic record (QOR). Janet, however, finished fourth in the final.
As far as Apuvi and Elavenil are concerned, Elavenil finished 16th in qualification with a score of 626.5 while Apurvi got a disappointing 34th place among 50 players with a score of 621.9.
The world record of this event is still in the name of Apurvi. Apurvi had set the record in 2019 with 252.9 points.
