The two victories bring to seven the number of gold medals China has won in the first three full days of competition at Athens, with Australia next best on five golds and Japan third with four.

China has won a total of 11 medals, with three silvers and two bronze, while Australia has won nine.

Zhu, 19, set a new world record of 702.7 points in the men's 10m air rifle gold, shading compatriot Li Jie for China's third gold medal of the shooting competition.

Chen then beat North Korea's Ri Song-Hui in the women's 58kg category of the weightlifting.

China can also look forward to more golden performances in the pool on Monday evening when 17-year-old world champions Lao Lishi and Li Ting compete in the women's synchronised platform diving event.

While the teenage wonders are regarded as virtual certainties to take gold, compatriots Peng Bo and Wang Kenan are also a chance to retain China's Olympic title in the men's synchronised springboard.

In more good news for China as they look to maintain their status as the strongest Olympic nation in the world behind the United States and Russia, their three top-seeded women's shuttlers made it into the semifinals of the singles badminton.

In another ruthless display, world number one and top seed Gong Ruina dropped just six points in defeating Taipei's Cheng Shao-Chieh, and will now play Dutch fourth seed Mia Audina.

Reigning world champion and tournament second seed Zhang Ning also sealed a place in the last four, but not before Hong Kong fifth seed Wang Chen got to within two points of victory in the final set.

Chinese third seed Zhou Mi defeated unseeded Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva for the final semifinal spot against Wang.

The women's performance helped make up for the disappointment of Lin Dan, the world number one and top seed, losing to unseeded Singaporean Ronald Susilo in the first round of the men's singles on Sunday.

Lin, regarded as the game's most exciting talent for years, lost 12-15, 10-15, to the Indonesian-born Singaporean.

China's table tennis champions were also preparing Monday to launch their bid for a third consecutive clean sweep of Olympic gold, after enjoying byes in the early rounds courtesy of their top seedings.