China won its first gold medal of the 22nd World Winter Universiade on Friday in Innsbruck, Austria, when Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao crowned in the figure skating pair event.

Host Austria took its third gold on day 2 of the games, leading the medal standings, followed by the Netherlands with two golds.

China, with one gold and two silvers, ranked fourth behind Slovakia, who had one gold, two silvers and one bronze in hand.

The 20-year-old Zhang Dan and 21-year-old Zhang Hao edged strong opponents from Russia and Ukraine for the win. Their teammate Ding Yang/Ren Chongfei took the fourth place.

"I am happy with the title and very happy for wining the first gold for my country, but not satisfied with my performance," said Zhang Hao, who won the 2004-2005 FISU Figure Skating Grand Prix in France and Russia with Zhang Dan.

"We were very confident to take the medal," Zhang Dan added.

The Chinese pair beat Tetyana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov from Ukraine into second. Russian Maria Mukhortova and Maksim Trankov won the bronze

Japan also won its first gold medal as Keiichiro Nagashima triumphed in the men's 500-meter speedskating in 72.520 seconds.

Nagashima pushed Chinese Zhang Zhongqi to second place in 72.670 seconds.

Lee Kang-Seok from South Korea took the bronze, 72.700.

Moniek Kleinsman led the Netherlands to a 1-2 finish in the speedskating women's 3000-meter event. She finished the race in four minutes 21.90 seconds, followed by compatriot Jorien Voorhuis who crossed the line in 4:25.77.

Russian Galina Likhacheva claimed the bronze medal in 4:26.69.

Russia and Ukraine splited men's and women's biathlon titles, also decided on Friday.