Tokyo Olympics: China's Qian Yang grabs first gold medal of Games in women's 10m air rifle

China's Qian Yang bagged the women's 10m air rifle gold in what was the first medal event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, here at the Asaka Shooting Range on Saturday. In a straight shoot-off between Anastasiia Galashina (ROC) and Qian for gold, the latter held her nerves better.

Yang shot 10.7 while Galashina shot 10.8 in their first shots of the final set. The ROC shooter had a 0.2 lead overall going into the last shots but Galashina managed to shoot a disappointing 8.9 -- her lowest score in the final. Qian then proceeded to shoot a 9.8 and grabbed the gold.

251.8 points is a new Final Olympic Record that now belongs to Qian. Switzerland's Nina Christen was knocked out on 230.6 points and she won the first bronze medal of Tokyo 2020. Qualifying leader Duestad was eliminated with just four shooters to go.

Earlier in qualification both Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failed to qualify for the medal round after finishing 16th and 36th respectively.

The World Number one Elavenil amassed 626.5 points at an average of 10.442 after shooting 60 shots on the target while Chandela gathered 621.9 in the qualifications, which in the end was just not good enough to make it to the 8-player final.

Apurvi Chandela started the first series on a good note as she accumulated 104.5 points meanwhile Elavenil Valarivan began her maiden Olympic journey at a decent average of 10.415 in the first two series.

For Chandela things got tough when a 9.5 and 9.9 in the second set saw her falling down the ranks and out of Top-25. She never recovered from that one and continued to be out of Top-20 during the whole match.

21-year-old Ela showed some grit and determination but 103.5 in series 5 dusted all her hopes of making it into the final.

( With inputs from ANI )