19-year-old American bags first gold at Rio 2016 games

The United States has bagged the first Olympic gold of the 31st Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro.

19-year-old shooter, Virginia Thrasher snatched the gold medal in the Women’s 10m air rifle event with a score of 208.

Congrats to Virginia Thrasher #USA on winning the first 🥇 #Rio2016. #shootingsport via ISSF_Shooting pic.twitter.com/CSEmdcfymM

— Rio 2016 (Rio2016_en) August 6, 2016

2006 world champion in the event, China’s Du Li settled for silver despite setting an Olympic record in the qualification round.

Du Li 🇨🇳 set an Olympic record in the Women's 10m Air Rifle qualification, goes on to win silver medal #RioRecords pic.twitter.com/WglnYFqJlt

— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) August 6, 2016

Li ended the competition with a score of 207.

Defending champion Yi Siling from China who won the first gold medal of the London 2012 games, this time around managed a Bronze having scored 185.4.

Thrasher according to the BBC, had always wanted to compete at the Olympic games in figure skating.

But she’s quoted by the BBC as saying: “About the time I started shooting … I knew I wasn’t going to make it in ice skating. Other than that, I had never thought about the Olympics before”.

Her resounding success has put team USA atop the medal table, followed by China with one silver and one bronze.