China's Du Li won the first gold medal of the Athens Olympics on Saturday with a come-from-behind victory in the women's 10-metre air rifle event.

Du started the final round in second place behind Russia's Lioubov Galkina and only moved ahead of the leader on the very last shot after stalking her prey through the first nine rounds.

The 22-year-old student won with a score of 502.0, which included an Olympic record final round of 104.0.

Galkina, who had set an Olympic record in the qualifying round earlier on Saturday with 399 and managed to thwart Du's irrepressible challenge until the last shot, took the silver medal. Katerina Kurkova of the Czech Republic won the bronze.

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Shooting, one of nine sports at the first modern Olympics in 1896, has traditionally held the honour of awarding the first medals of the Olympics. It was the first of 17 medals in the nine days of shooting competition.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, presented the medals at the Markopoulo Shooting Centre outside Athens just minutes before noon, mere hours after the Olympics opened.

The 31-year-old Galkina, fourth in the 2000 Olympics, had been nearly flawless in the qualifying round with 399 out of a possible 400 that broke the existing Olympic qualifying round record of 397 set by German Petra Horneber at Atlanta in 1996.

She also shot superbly in all but the last of the 10-round final, faltering with a subpar shot of 9.7.

It was Galkina's only shot under 10 in the finals and came at the worst possible moment as the on-charging Du hit close to the centre of the bullseye on her final shot for a 10.6.

Du, who had been oblivious to the loud cheers on earlier shots from enthusiastic China supporters, turned to her backers after the final shot and flashed a broad grin.

Du is the current world record holder with a score of 504.9 set at a World Cup event in Zagreb last year.

China's coach Xu Haifeng has said his team aims to win eight to 10 medals in Athens after taking three golds, two silvers and two bronze medals in Sydney.