by sportswriter Zhang Rongfeng

    BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ace shooter Du Li failed to defend her title Saturday at the women's 10m air rifle, the first gold medal produced at the Beijing Games.

    Chinese shooting team manager was reluctant to put Du's result of 499.6 points as under performance, but admitted it's kind of heavy pressure vying for the first gold in the homeland Games.

Chinese markswoman Du Li (2nd L) competes during women's 10m Air rifle qualification at Beijing Shooting Range Hall in Beijing, China, Aug. 9, 2008. (Xinhua/Wang Qingqin) Photo Gallery>>>

    Du finished only fifth, 3.9 points behind the titlist Katerina Emmons, who also refreshed the Olympic record in the event. The 26-year-old Chinese broke into tears and crossed the mixed zone saying nothing.

    "The first gold medal at the Olympic Games is really a magnet for worldwide media and worldwide viewers, so it's inevitably got more pressure for athletes competing in the event," said Xiao Haopeng, the shooting team manager of China.

    "Anyway, I don't think Du Li's result is something surprising. You can not count on her winning all the time. For only one to two contenders allowed through the Olympic qualifier, it's really hard to win often in the big arena like the Olympics for one person.

    "It's quite possible for her to win and it's also not out of our expectation for her to lose. You compete just in top form sometimes, and your opponents compete in that form another time. Du got an impressive preliminaries with a point of 399, equaling the Olympic record, so generally speaking I still take the result as normal," added Xiao.

    Du also complained about the concerns from media on her and great expectations from around to shoot down the first gold. It seemed the defending champion and homeland heroine just burdened much more than that girl four years ago, who got nothing to lose.

    The gold medallist Katerina Emmons seems to feel what Du feels. "Du just got much more pressure as far as I judge. You media just swarmed around her even in her training. I can not bear that if I'm in that situation, so I can feel what Du feel," said the 25-year-old from Czech Republic, who was the bronze winner at the Athens Games.

    In spite of losing the well-credited first medal-producing event, Xiao holds faith with Du still looking forward to the women's 3X20 rifle in the coming days.

    "Du is a girl not giving in to frustrations, so she would recover from depression soon. We got preparations over difficult time and I think she can be competitive in her next event," said Xiao.

    "Though it's only a secondary discipline for her, she got good performance in last year's 'Good Luck Beijing' Olympic test."

    Technically speaking, Du got a problem with the aiming point, as Xiao analyzed, which may be resulted from shooter's fault or from the rifle's problem.

    Lioubov Galkina finished second again in 502.1 points, following up the Athens' marking. Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took the third place in 500.9 points.