Czech markswoman Katerina Emmons was obviously high-spirited after grabbing the the first gold of the Beijing Olympics here on Saturday, and showed her sympathy to the defending champion Du Li from China.
"I really feel bad for Du Li," said Emmons after leading all the way to snatch the gold in the women's 10-meter air rifle, the first gold of the 29th Summer Olympics, and lifted the Olympic record to 503.5 points.
"This flower I want to give to her," said Emmons in the news conference, waving the bunch of flower for the medallists in her hands. "She can shoot better than she did today."
Talking about her shining performance with a full mark of 400 points in the qualification and 103.5 points in the final, the 24-year-old Emmons said she was so happy that "my heart rate got so high. It's even like a heart attack."
As the bronze medallist in the event at the Athens Olympic Games, Emmons will also take part in the women's 50-meter three positions this time. "Half of my job has been done," Emmons said with ease, but frowned then referring to Du's pressure at home turf.
"The Chinese media put too much pressure on her," Emmons said. "You can see the Chinese media was around her everyday during the training. I can't imagine to be in her shoes."
The 26-year-old Du burst into tears after failing to bag home the first gold and shun all the journalists in the mixed zone.
"I dealt with my pressure, but it's even harder for her," Emmons said. "It's really hard to handle. For me, I just didn't think about it. It didn't make any sense to think."
According to Katerina's husband Matthew Emmons, Katerina was really nervous before the competition. "After all, It's the Olympics."
The American Matthew fired at a wrong target when he was just one shot away from his second Athens Olympic gold medal four years ago, but found his true love due to this accident.
Matthew decided not to attend the opening ceremony last evening in order to accompany his wife. "We just did what we normally do last night, having some talk, watching some movie..."
Katerina believed her husband was the best teammate she had ever had and "I think we are one of the best teams in the world ", so did Matthew.
"We are a team. So I would like to see that we move forward together," said Matthew who will also compete in two events at the Beijing Games.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)