Olympic champion Wu Jingyu easily won the women's 49kg class taekwondo gold at the 11th Chinese National Games here on Wednesday.

Wu, also world champion in 2007, met few challenges during the one-day preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal competitions. In the night's lop-sided final, Wu outscored Hebei's Niu Xiaoxiao with an overwhelming 7-1 victory, gifting her hometown Jiangxi province the first gold medal of the taekwondo events from Sept. 9to 12.

With great explosive power and flexible body, the 1.66-meter-tall Wu scored the opening three points with a brilliant axe kick to the opponent's head, cheering the hundreds of spectators into chaos.

In the second round, the confident Wu launched more aggressive attacks and added one more point by a side kick, then could nearly seal the victory after winning another direct three points. Her opponent Niu fought back to collect one point but then seemed to give up the counterattack in front of a furious world champion.

With deafening countdown cheers from the stands, Wu slowed down the tempo with experienced defence in the third round, clinching her first gold medal of her first National Games with ease.

"Though I have great experience at last year's Olympics, the National Games also means a lot to me. Each game is not so easy as you had imagined and I had to work hard towards each target with steady progress," said a beaming Wu after the bout.

Wu also looked to another harvest at next Summer Olympics, saying, "It's very difficult to keep a steady form in so many years. I will treat each day and each fight carefully before London."

In the third-place playoffs, Wang Ying of Anhui and Jiang Mengfei of Zhejiang beat their respective opponents to share the bronze medal.

In the later men's 58kg final, Zuo Yi from Henan delegation outscored Guizhou's Pei Guangqi 5-3 to clinch the gold. The bronze medal went to Gao Changmin from Tibet and Xu Yongzeng of Fujian province.

The 11th edition of the National Games, which are held every four years, is the country's top national-level sport gala. It will take place in Shandong Province from Oct. 16 to 28.

Organisers said the four-day taekwondo events had to be staged on in advance in order to give way to the World Championships next month.