AUGUST 9 - CHINA failed to claim the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics as the Czech Republic's Katerina Emmons (pictured) won the women's 10-metre Air Rifle - and broke the world record in the process.

 

Emmons shot 400 to set a new record in qualifying to take a narrow one-point advantage over Russia's Lioubov Galkina, Croatia's Snjezana Pejcic and China's defending champion Du Li into the final.

 

Emmons then shot 103.5 for a final Olympic record total of 503.5 to take the gold.Galkina claimed silver with a score of 502.1, while Pejcic took the bronze with a total of 500.9.

 

Li, who won the first medal of the Athens Games, disappointed the home crowd, finishing in a relatively lowly fifth position.

 

Xiao Haopeng, the shooting team manager of China, put Li's performance down to pressue.

 

He said: "The first gold medal at the Olympic Games is really a magnet for worldwide media and worldwide viewers, so it's inevitably got more pressure for athletes competing in the event."