Jitu Rai
Shooter Jitu Rai (right) won India their first gold at the Asian GamesIANS File

India were always going to bank on their shooters to give them a pretty good chunk of the heavy metals in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, and in a sign of a lot more to come, Shweta Chaudhry kicked off the medal rush off with a bronze in the women's 10m air pistol event, before Jitu Rai went a couple of levels better by clinching the gold.

Rai, who did so well to garner the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow a couple of months back, kept that brilliant form going by picking up gold in the 50m pistol event at the Ongnyeon International Shooting range on Saturday.

The Indian ace beat Vietnam's Hoang Phuong Nguyen and Wei Pang of China with the duo settling for silver and bronze respectively.

Earlier, all eyes were on Heena Sidhu to see if the Indian ace can find her medal winning ways again, but it was Chaudhry who stole the spotlight with an impressive performance.

Sidhu did not even manage to qualify for the finals, with Malaika Goel, another medal hope, also disappointing in the same event.

However, Chaudhry ensured India would begin the opening day of event action with a medal, after the Indian shot a total of 176.4, well behind the silver and gold medallists.

China began their domination of the Asian Games with a gold in the 10 air pistol, as Zhang Mengyuan shot an impressive total of 202.2, with hosts South Korea's Jung Jeehae having to settle for the silver after shooting a total of 201.3.