ATHENS, 15 August 2004 — China grabbed the first two gold medals of the Olympic Games yesterday when Wang Yifu rallied to defeat Russia’s Mikhail Nestruev on the final shot in the men’s 10-meter air pistol competition.
Earlier, China’s Du Li had won the first gold medal of the Olympics with a remarkably similar triumph in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event, coming from behind to knock another Russian, Lioubov Galkina, into second place.
China’s perfect two-for-two start on the first day of the shooting competition underscored the confident predictions of Chinese officials, who had said their team should win up to 10 medals in the 17 shooting events.
Wang, 43, had trailed throughout the 10-shot pistol finals but outscored his Russian rival, who was standing just to his left, on their crucial last shot to win with a total of 690.0 points to Nestruev’s 689.8.
Nestruev, the European champion who had set an Olympic record of 591 points in the qualifying round earlier yesterday, took the silver medal while his compatriot Vladimir Isakov outdueled Bulgaria’s Tanyu Kiriakov for the bronze.
Sydney gold medalist Franck Dumoulin of France did not even reach the eight-man finals, stumbling in the qualifications into a disappointing three-way tie for 20th place, 14 points behind the 35-year-old Nestruev.
Wang, who won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics and finished second both in 1996 and 2000, appeared to be heading for another silver medal through the final round as Nestruev hit the bull’s-eye on five of his first eight shots.
Nestruev was still leading by a full point after the eighth round before Wang outpointed him by 10.3 to 9.3 on the penultimate shot to even the score at 680.1 and send a roar through the indoor arena.
Maintaining his poker face, Nestruev shot first in the final round and scored 9.7 while Wang, breathing heavily, first put his pistol back down for a moment. He then looked up, aimed and scored a 9.9 to beat Nestruev.
