China's shooters won the first two gold medals of the Athens Olympics on the first full day of competition on Saturday as swimming stars Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe began what is expected to be one of the great rivalries of the Games.
After a dazzling opening ceremony kicked the Games into action the previous night, the first gold medal came from the shooting range.
China's Du Li scored a near bullseye to deprive Russia's Lioubov Galkina of victory with the last shot in the women's 10-metre air rifle final. "It's an unbelievable feeling to win gold," Du said.
Within four hours, Wang Yifu produced a similarly nerveless performance to strike gold in the men's 10m Air Pistol event.
Despite winning gold at the 1992 Olympics, Wang had earned the reputation as a serial choker after twice being pipped for first place in the 1996 and 2000 Games.
But the veteran Chinese shooter was not to be denied for a third time, scoring high with his last shot to finish with a total of 690 points, fractionally ahead of Mikhail Nestruev as Russia were again left with the silver medal.
China therefore made the perfect start in their quest to repeat their performance of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when they finished third in the medals' table with 28 golds.
American phenomenon Phelps, 19, eased through his Olympic opener in the swimming pool, launching his drive for a record-equalling seven gold medals by posting the fastest qualifying time in the 400m individual medley.
While Phelps dominated his event, Australian superstar Ian Thorpe conceded top qualifying spot in the 400m freestyle to compatriot Grant Hackett.
"I was pretty confident, it's the way I wanted to qualify," said Thorpe, who won three gold medals at the Sydney Games and has a chance to win six here.
Japan's double world champion Kosuke Kitajima made a sensational start, setting an Olympic record of 1min 0.03sec in the 100-metre breaststroke heats.

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Medals table
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          G   S   B   T
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China     2   0   1   3
Japan     2   0   0   2
Russia    0   2   1   3
France    0   1   0   1
Georgia   0   1   0   1
Czech
Republic  0   0   1   1
Germany   0   0   1   1
S Korea   0   0   1   1
Mongolia  0   0   1   1
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