Olympics | China wins first ever artistic swimming gold medal in team event at Paris

PARIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- After leading the first two routines in the team event, China claimed its first ever gold medal in artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics after the acrobatic routine here on Wednesday.

With the theme "Light of Life", China scored 283.6934 points in the team acrobatic routine for a winning total of 996.1389.

The United States took the silver medal with 914.3421, and Spain finished third on 900.7319. Host nation France ended just outside the medal placings with 886.6487.

The team event consists of three parts of the team technical, team free and team acrobatic.

"It is a great honor that we took Olympic glory for the first time. It was a great honor to make history for our country," said China's tearful head coach Zhang Xiaohuan.

"We set a goal of trying to reach 900 points before the Games. It seemed that we underestimated ourselves. Our girls did a much better job during the three team routines. We were extremely excited to show our best to the world."

China had earned a bronze medal in the team event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and moved forward with one silver in team and one bronze in the duet in 2012. For the past two Olympic Games, China had finished with two silver medals.

"We have a good tradition that we learned a lot from our veteran coaches in other sports, such as diving, gymnastics and trampoline. We tried to follow the new rules and match up with all the other powerhouses in the world," Zhang said.