Yuan Hua, 27, took the first gold medal of the Games as she overcame Japanese Maki Tsukada in the women's over-78kg class final.

"I felt great pressure during the competition although people thought I would easily win," said the reigning world champion, who subdued four rivals en route to the title, all by ippon.

Olympic silver medalist Dong Zhaozhi fulfilled China's dream of individual fencing gold at the biennial Games when he routed Wang Haibin 15-8 in an all-Chinese foil final.

If compared with Wang, who clinched a close victory over Italian Lorenzo Mammi in the semi-final, Dong was fortunate enough because his semi-final rival Vadim Aioupov of Russia pulled out after straining knee.

China's last Universiade fencing gold came from 1983, when Luan Jujie led the Chinese women to the foil team title.

"We didn't expect this gold," said Wang Jian, team manager of the Chinese team.

The Chinese men's gymnastics squad, led by Olympic gold medalists Xing Aowei and Zheng Lihui, won the team title by totaling 172.150 points.

Japan came in second with 168.780 points and South Korea was third with 165.925, with Russia shut out of the top eight.

Guo Jingjing, world diving champion and Olympic silver medalist, led fellow Chinese Li Rongjuan to a 1-2 finish in the women's 1m springboard final.

Guo, 19, took the gold with a total of 309.51 points for her five dives in the final. Li Rongjuan, 21, won the silver with 285. 51 points, ahead of Russian Natalia Oumyskova who got bronze with 281.16 points.

"The 1m springboard is not what I'm best at. My 3m springboard is better," Guo said. "I've been training hard for this Universiade."

"I always try my best at competition, no matter it's international meet or national," added Guo, who is studying sports training at the Beijing Sports University.

Guo, runner-up after Fu Mingxia in the 3m springboard at the Sydney Olympics, said she will strive for an Olympic gold.

"I didn't get gold in Sydney, so my biggest goal right now is to win a gold medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004," she said.

Wang Tianling, who finished second in last two world university games, finally stroke gold as he won the men's 1m springboard final.

Wang totaled 458.58 points for the title, followed by compatriot Wang Feng at 445.74. Imre Lengyel of Hungary finished a distant third at 384.75.

World and Olympic swimming champion Yana Klochkova won the first gold medal in the pool when she timed 8 minutes, 36.37 seconds to win the women's 800 meters freestyle final.

The 19-year-old Klochkova, who holds the world record at the 400 meters individual medley, splashed away from second place Jana Pecanova of the Czech Republic, who took silver in 8:38.50. Japan's Schiko Yamada was third in 8:38.59.

The Italian men took the 800-meter relay by clocking 7 minutes, 20.34 seconds to beat pre-race favorites the United States.

The Americans got silver in 7:23.62 and France won bronze in 7: 23.71.

After Yuan Hua's victory at over-78kg judo class, Britain's Rogers Michelle overcame an arm injury to edge out Dutch Zwiers Claudia in the under-78kg final.

Cho Su Hee of South Korea and Japanese Morishima Naomi shared the bronze medal.

Russian Mikhaylin Alexandre, double gold medalist of men's over- 100kg and open categories at the Munich Worlds, suffered a major setback as he lost to V.D. Geest Dennis of the Netherlands in the men's over-100kg final.

"I was very happy," Dennis said, "I won against Alexandre who was the world champion two weeks ago. For me it's a big win."

Judo powerhouse Japan snatched the last gold of the day through Suzuki Keiji in the men's under 100kg class. South Korean Jang Sung-Ho had to settle for the silver.

(People's Daily 08/24/2001)