Shooter Yang Qian of China, on Saturday, won the first gold medal of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Chinese shooter also set an Olympic record – 251.8 – in the women’s 10m air rifle ahead of Russia’s Anastassia Galashina and Switzerland’s Nina Christen, who scored 251.1 and 230.6, respectively.

While Anastassia won silver, Nina took home the bronze medal.

Anastassia was in a prime position to win the gold medal heading into the last shot. However, she stumbled with 8.9 on her final effort to give Yang an opportunity to seal the victory.

The event took place the morning after the Olympics opened in a nearly empty stadium.

The first medal ceremony of the Summer Games saw Yang presented with her gold by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Yang draped the medal around her neck after being handed the gold on a tray offered by Bach, in keeping with COVID-19 protocols in place at the Games.

With fans barred from venues, only a handful of Chinese support staff were on hand to congratulate Yang after the win.

Christen took bronze ahead of Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad, who led after the qualifying round.

Earlier, Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan failed to qualify for the event.

Elavenil, who made her Olympic debut, finished 16th in the qualifications after shooting 626.5 over six series of 10 shots each. Apurvi, on the other hand, settled for 36th place after aggregating 621.9 at the Asaka Range.

The Indians were off to a decent start and even as Apurvi slipped after a disastrous second series, with two scores of 9.5 and 9.9, the 21-year-old Elavenil tried to remain in the reckoning with a fine performance in the third series, including shooting a perfect 10.9.

However, Elavenil, a World Cup Final gold-medallist, could not maintain the same form and a couple of 9s in the fifth and sixth series pushed her further down.