North Korea's Hong Un Jong claimed her country's second gold of the Games, winning the women's vault final.
Hong scored 15.65, despite incurring a 0.3 point penalty on her first vault.
Germany's Oksana Chusovitina took silver on 15.575 and China's Cheng Fei third on 15.562 to add to the hosts' gymnastics medal haul.
Hong, who was fourth at last year's world championships, performed two solid vaults with clean landings to take the Olympic title.
The event provided more misery for Russia, once the event's dominant force, after its gymnast Anna Pavlova finished last after scoring no points for one of her vaults.
Pavlova failed to notice the light was still on red when she sprinted up for her disqualified vault - her second - in the final.
She was shocked when a score of 0.000 flashed up, in an echo of the 2007 world championships when another zero on the apparatus cost the Russian team a bronze medal.
She had scored a good 15.625 for her first vault, which would have been good enough for the silver medal had she maintained it through the compeition.
But the no-score gave her an average of 7.812. The next lowest was 14.487
"It is an intolerable error for an athlete of my experience," said Pavlova, 20.
"I really thought there was a green light when I started to run but when I looked at the replay it was red. I thought I saw something flash. It was my mistake."
Pavlova, who won a bronze at the Athens Games four years ago, said the incident affected her performance in the subsequent floor final.
She finished last of the eight gymnasts after landing on her knees in her final tumble.
Russia's only medal in the gymnastics so far in Beijing is Anton Golotsutskov's floor bronze on Sunday.
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