BEIJING — The roar began as soon as Chen Yibing's feet hit the mat today, a primal scream that was four pressure-packed years in the making.

Only half the meet was over, but so was this competition.

China has the Olympic title it has long craved and everyone else expected. The Americans, meanwhile, won the bronze with a roster patched together at the last minute when not one, but both Hamm brothers were knocked out with injuries.

Japan, the defending Olympic champion, won the silver.

"They told me, 'We succeeded. We are the world champions.' I told them we reached our target," coach Huang Yubin said. "Other teams were good, but we were better. We performed perfect today. Everyone was excellent."

The Chinese began celebrating even before their last event, high bar, was finished. When little Zou Kai's feet hit the mat with a thud, his teammates jumped up and down.

There were no tears from the Americans, only elation. When the final standings popped up, Jonathan Horton screamed: "Nobody believed in us! Nobody believed in us."

China finished with 278.875 points, more than seven points ahead of Japan. That's such a blowout the Chinese could have brought three fans in for the last event and still won. The Americans had 275.850.

"It bothers me a lot, especially if people from home kind of put down our team, saying, 'Count the U.S. out. We can't wait to see how China, Japan and Germany do,' " Horton said. "I wish more people in the U.S. believed in us like we believed in us."

The Chinese have won seven of the last eight world titles, including the last three. For all that, though, they were still considered underachievers. There was just one Olympic title during this reign, and their collapse four years ago was one of epic proportions. Not only did they not win the gold they were supposed to, they went home with just two medals, only one gold.

"Since Athens, the Chinese team has run into a lot of failures which tested the team," Huang said. "I know them, and they do work very hard and put a lot of hard work in their training. We worked as team, we enjoyed it, and that's more important than anything."

SHOOTING

ALASKAN WOMAN EARNS BRONZE IN TRAP EVENT

BEIJING — Corey Cogdell, a 21-year-old Alaskan, won a four-way shoot-off for bronze in women's trap shooting yesterday. Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela hit an Olympic-record 21 targets to take the gold.

Cogdell was the youngest shooter in the finals. She finished 50th at last year's world championships. What foes didn't realize is that she's honed her aim by having grown up hunting for dinner as a kid in rugged wilderness.

"There are similarities between shooting in the wild and at competitions," she said. "Dove hunting definitely helps here because the target presentations are similar."

SOUTH KOREAN TAKES GOLD IN AIR PISTOL

BEIJING — South Korea's Jin Jong-oh won the gold medal in men's 50-meter pistol today, holding on to edge North Korea's Kim Jong Su. China's Tan Zongliang took the bronze.

Jin scored only 8.2 of a possible 10.9 points on his final attempt, meaning Kim and Tan each could have won. Tan shot only a 9.2, and Kim shot a 10.5, falling 0.2 points short of Jin's total of 660.4.

AMERICAN WINS GOLD IN DOUBLE TRAP

BEIJING — American Glenn Eller won the gold medal in double trap shooting today, building a solid lead during qualifying and then hitting 45 of 50 targets in the final round.

Eller set an Olympic record with a total score of 190 — and also with a qualifying score of 145. Francesco D'Aniello of Italy won the silver, and Hu Binyuan of China took the bronze.

BASKETBALL

U.S. WOMEN ROLL TO EASY WIN OVER CHINA

BEIJING — A day after the U.S. men routed China, the women won by an even more lopsided score yesterday.

Tina Thompson powered a 23-0 run in the first quarter that sent the Americans well on their way to a 108-63 victory. By the time Kobe Bryant and the rest of the men's team settled into their seats at the end of the first quarter the U.S. was up 33-11.

"We were really locked in and focused," U.S. co-captain Katie Smith said. "We didn't want to let them stick around."

The U.S. will next face Mali (0-2), which lost Hamchetou Maiga of the Houston Comets to an ankle injury in an 81-47 loss to the Czechs.

SOFTBALL

U.S. CRUISES TO EASY WIN OVER VENEZUELA

BEIJING — The U.S. softball team picked up where it left off four years ago as Jennie Finch pitched five no-hit innings and the Americans hit three home runs — one an inside-the-parker by Caitlin Lowe — to rock Olympic newcomer Venezuela, 11-0, in its tournament opener today.

The U.S. set an Olympic record for runs and won its 15th straight Olympic game.

TENNIS

NADAL, FEDERER, WILLIAMS SISTERS WIN

BEIJING — It sounds like the opening round of a major: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and the Williams sisters all advanced yesterday.

Nadal won his Olympic singles debut, beating Italy's Potito Starace, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, and Federer beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov, 6-4, 6-2.

Venus Williams beat Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky, 6-3, 6-2 and Serena Williams finished out her weather-suspended match against Belarus' Olga Govortsova, 6-3, 6-1.

WEIGHTLIFTING

CHINESE DOMINATING MEDAL STAND THUS FAR

BEIJING — Don't mess with Chinese weightlifters. Chen Yanqing broke two Olympic records en route to her second straight gold medal in the women's 58-kilogram category yesterday, making the host country 3 for 3 thus far.

Later yesterday, Zhang Xiangxiang won the men's 62-kilogram division, upping China to 4 for 4.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

WALSH, MAY-TREANOR IMPROVE TO 2-0

BEIJING — Athens gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor cruised to a 2-0 record in the beach volleyball round-robin today, dispatching a pair of three-time Olympians from Cuba in straight sets, 21-15, 21-16.

With their 103rd consecutive win — the Americans are virtually assured of reaching the Round of 16.