The 25-year-old Zhang Mengxue won China's first gold at the Rio Olympics by claiming the women's 10m air pistol title here on Aug 7, 2016.(Photo/Xinhua)
The Chinese team scooped three gold medals on the second day of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after failing to open an account on the first day, capping the tally with three golds, two silvers and three bronzes.
China won its first gold medal at the Rio Summer Olympics on Sunday when Zhang Mengxue was successful in the women's 10m air pistol event.
Zhang, 25, from Jinan, Shandong province, reached the final by finishing in seventh place in qualification.
Her performance helped lift the gloom after Chinese competitors failed to win any gold medals on Saturday, the first full day of competition.
Chinese tend to view first-day gold medals as an auspicious sign.
But to the surprise of many in Rio on Saturday, Chinese competitors missed out on all four opportunities to strike gold - the women's 10m air rifle, men's 10m air pistol, women's epee, and most important, the men's 400m freestyle swimming in which national star Sun Yang was defending the title he won at the London Olympics.
China had to settle for two silvers and three bronzes instead. It was the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics that the nation had failed to win a gold medal on the first full day of competition.
After Zhang's success in winning the first gold medal, China secured the first diving gold medal, the second in all, when Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao won the women's synchronized 3m springboard.
The pair lived up to its billing as favorite with an overall score of 345.60 points from five dives, some 31.77 points ahead of silver medalists Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape of Italy.
The result at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center continued China's remarkable sequence of results in the event. The Asian nation has won every world and Olympic title in the women's synchronized springboard since the 2000 Sydney Games.
The performance also secured a raft of records for veteran Wu.
The 30-year-old has now won the most Olympic diving medals by a woman, surpassing compatriot Guo JingJing with seven podium finishes.
She also became the oldest woman to win an Olympic diving medal, overtaking the U.S.A's Micki King, who was 28 when she won the springboard title in 1972.
In addition, Wu equaled the record held by Canada's Emilie Heymans for diving medals in the most Olympic Games (four).
