Athens Olympics' first gold medal, won by Chinese markswoman Du Li Saturday noon, drove China's top sports administrators into exultation.

The 22-year-old Du, making an Olympic debut here, held her nerves to beat her closest rival Lioubov Galkina of Russia at the last shot in the women's air rifle final held in the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Center.

Chinese Olympic chief Yuan Weimin watched the live broadcast of the thrilling 10-shot final at the Athletes' Village with the Chinese delegation's deputy chef-de-missions Li Furong and Cui Daling and general secretary Xiao Tian.

Delegation officials jumped with joy on Du Li's last shot of 10.6 points against Galkina's 9.7.

Yuan, who has attended six straight Olympics as a coach and an official, said Du gave a good start to the Chinese delegation.

The Chinese chef-de-mission noted that in the 1984 Olympics Xu Haifeng, now head coach of the Chinese shooting team, won the Games' first gold as well as the first ever Olympic gold for China.

"It was a come-from-behind victory and Du has very strong nerves," he said. "She looked really calm at the last shot," he said.

The Chinese Olympic Committee and the State General Administration of Sport have sent the letter of congratulation to the Chinese Olympic delegation.

Source: Xinhua