Paralympic Games: China takes Games’ first gold medal

SHOOTING: Chinese Zhang Cuiping won the first of 503 Paralympic gold medals in London yesterday. The 24-year-old set a world record in the women’s R2-10 metres air rifle standing SH1 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Zhang finished with 500.9 points, well clear of Germany’s Manuela Schmermund in second, with Australian Natalie Smith taking bronze.

Zhang set a Paralympic record in qualifying with 396 points and she was equally accurate in the final with 104.9.

Schmermund finished with 493.6 points and Smith 492.4. The oldest competitor at the Paralympics, 70-year-old grandmother Elizabeth Kosmala, was eighth in the final with 488.7.

The Australian was competing in her 11th Games, having debuted in 1972 in Heidelberg.