UPDATE 1-Olympics-Shooting-Emmons wins first gold of Olympics

By Erik Kirschbaum

BEIJING, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic claimed the first gold medal of the 29th Olympic Games on Saturday with a convincing victory in the women's 10m air rifle event.

Emmons, who met and married U.S. shooter Matt Emmons after winning bronze at the 2004 Olympics, equalled a world record score of 400 in the qualification round and was near flawless in the final round to win the gold medal with a score of 503.5 -- a new Olympic record.

Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver medal with a score of 502.1. She had also won silver in Athens. Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia 500.9.

Du Li of China finished a disappointing fifth. She had won the gold medal in Athens and was the favourite at the Olympics at home. (For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china) (Editing by Alex Richardson)