China claimed the first Olympic gold of the London 2012 Games on Saturday, with a victory for 23-year-old Siling Yi in the women's 10-meter air rifle shooting, as the first official day of the Summer Games got going.
"I'm very excited and happy," she said, quoted by the official Games website. The world's No. 1, who started shooting at age 13, said there had been "a lot of pressure" on her to perform.
Meanwhile, rival American swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are set to go head-to-head in a battle that will be a highlight of the day.
And Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku became the first athlete to be sanctioned for failing an anti-doping test at the London Games.
Pulaku, 20, tested positive on Monday for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol, the International Olympic Committee said, and has been excluded from the competition.
Queen Elizabeth II made an appearance at the Aquatics Center on Saturday to watch the action, having officially declared the Games open the previous night during director Danny Boyle's raucous, pop culture-themed opening ceremony.
Widely hailed in UK media Saturday as showcasing in an inventive, and sometimes eccentric, way what is best about Britain, the show included a short film featuring Daniel Craig, the latest actor to play cinematic British spy James Bond, and none other than the queen herself. It also paid tribute to Britain's National Health Service and children's literature, as well as its history.
