PARIS: China grabbed the first two gold medals of the Paris Olympics on a rain-disrupted first full opening day of sporting action.

Asian powerhouses China, who last topped the Olympic medal table in 2008, made a flying start to their latest bid for supremacy on Saturday, bagging early golds in shooting and synchronised diving.

Teenage pair Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting won the first Chinese gold in the mixed team 10-metre air rifle event, before all-conquering divers Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen somersaulted to victory in the women’s three-metre springboard final.

Australia celebrated its first gold with cyclist Grace Brown speeding to victory in the women’s individual time trial over 34.2 kilometres.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel backed up his win at the world championships by defying rain and a strong field to win the men’s event.

A total of 13 golds were up for grabs in Paris on Saturday as wet weather continued to cause headaches for organisers following Friday’s deluge at the opening ceremony.

The men’s street skateboarding competition, due to take place at the Place de la Concorde in the historic heart of the city, was postponed until Monday due to the wet conditions.

The downpours also disrupted play in the opening rounds of tennis at Roland Garros, with dozens of matches cancelled or rescheduled.

Torrential rain had lashed participants and spectators in Friday’s amphibious opening ceremony.

Around 7,000 athletes paraded along the River Seine in an armada of boats before a show-stopping finale which climaxed with a glittering light show at the Eiffel Tower and a performance from singer Celine Dion.

The ceremony received broadly favourable reviews, with France’s centre-right Le Figaro daily describing it as “full of surprises but often disjointed”.

In rugby sevens host nation France stayed on course for a gold medal after advancing to a dream final against Fiji at the Stade de France.

French rugby idol Antoine Dupont helped the hosts defeat South Africa 19-5 in the semi-finals while Fiji comfortably downed Australia 31-7.

SHARPSHOOTING SHENG, HUANG

Chinese shooters have claimed their country’s first gold of the Games more times than athletes in any other sport and that trend continued with Huang and Sheng triumphing at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Their 16-12 win, quelling a late challenge from the South Korean pair of Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun, ensured China remain the only country to win the gold in the mixed team event introduced in Tokyo three years ago.

Earlier, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev won the first medal of the Games with an upset victory in the bronze medal match.

Le and Satpayev cruised to victory over Germany’s Maximilian Ulbrich and Anna Janssen, outscoring their opponents 17-5.

First-time Olympians Chen and Chang, who arrived in Paris having won three consecutive world titles, began China’s bid to capture all eight women’s diving golds by winning the synchronised three-metre springboard event, romping to victory with a total of 337.68 points.

That left them comfortably ahead of the American duo of Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook, who took silver with 314.64pts.

Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won bronze with a final total of 302.28.

Chinese divers won seven out of eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago.

BROWN FINALLY WINS

In a crash-riddled women’s time trial, Brown destroyed the field with her power and bike handling abilities being unmatched by her rivals as she finally claimed a major title.

Several riders slid and fell on wet and cobbled corners on the 32.4-km course, with world champion Chloe Dygert settling for bronze. Britain’s Anna Henderson took second place, one minute 31.59 seconds behind Brown’s winning time of 39 minutes 38.24.

“It means so much. Being away from Australia a lot of the year, being away from my family, that’s given me the impetus to work really hard and make it all worth it,” said Brown.

Evenepoel added an Olympic gold to his world title as he won the men’s race in emphatic fashion to continue his meteoric rise.

The 24-year-old, who finished third overall in the Tour de France earlier this month, clocked 36 minutes 12.16 seconds over 32.4km in driving rain to beat Italian Filippo Ganna by 14.92. Another Belgian, Wout van Aert, won bronze.

TSUNODA ON TOP

In judo, Japan’s Natsumi Tsunoda won the gold medal in the women’s under 48 kg, while Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan won gold in the men’s under 60kg category.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there were wins for Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz, top seed Novak Djokovic and women’s world number one Iga Swiatek as the Olympics tennis tournament got under way at a sodden Roland Garros.

Djokovic said his 6-0, 6-1 win against doubles specialist Matthew Ebden in just 53 minutes was “not a good image” for tennis.

In the men’s football Argentina’s men’s team bounced back from defeat in their opening match, which was marred by crowd trouble, to beat Iraq 3-1.

The surfing competition began 16,000 kilometres (9,950 miles) kilometres away on the French Pacific island of Tahiti.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2024