Nancy Johnson takes first gold of Games

Tradition holds that the first ever gold medal of an Olympic competition goes to a shooter.

In the Millenium Games, that shooter was Nancy Johnson of the US of A, who claimed the first gold in Sydney 2000 with a win in the women's 10-metre air rifle shooting event.

17-year-old Korean prodigy Cho-Hyun Kang, who equalled the Olympic record of 397 out of 400 in the qualifying round, took the silver, while Gao Jing of China came in third.

The event featured an upset with Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany, the pre-event hot favourite, finishing a poor fifth.

Franck Dumoulin of France with a tally of 688.9 points set a new Olympic record and won the gold in the men's 10m air pistol. Yifu Wang of China with 686.9 points won the silver while Igor Basinsky of Belarus (682.7 points) bagged the bronze.

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