Emmons wins first gold medal of the Games

Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic won the first gold of the Beijing Olympic Games today when she won the Women's 10m Air Rifle.

Emmons, 24, was in scintillating form, breaking Olympic records in both the qualification and final rounds.

In the qualification round, Emmons shot a perfect 400, which equaled the World Record and set a new Olympic Record. The previous Olympic Record was 399.

In the final round, Emmons shot 103.5, giving her a final score of 503.5, which eclipsed the previous record of 502.0 set by China's Du Li at Athens 2004.

Katerina Emmons wins the first gold of the Beijing Olympics .

The gold medal is Emmons' second Olympic medal, following her bronze at Athens 2004 in the same event.

Emmons never looked threatened throughout the event, despite solid shooting performances by silver medalist Lioubov Galkina of Russia and bronze medalist Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia, who shot final scores of 502.1 and 500.9 respectively.

The day was full of disappointment for Athens 2004 gold medalist Du Li of China and World No. 1 Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany. Du finished fifth after shooting poorly in the final, finishing with a total score of 499.6. Pfeilschifter just missed out on making the final round.

The United States' Jamie Beyerle finished fourth after performing well in the final, shooting a total score of 499.8.