London: It was a contrasting performance for Indian ace shooters Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra at the 10m Air Rifle Shooting event of the London Olympics with Narang making it to the finals while Bindra missed the cut.
Narang shot a score of 598 out of 600 to finish third whereas Beijing Games gold medalist score of 594 saw him end the qualification round at 16th at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Bindra aiming to become the first shooter ever to win two successive gold medals at the Olympics picked up well after his initial rounds of 99 and shot two perfect rounds to bring him back in the contention. But then he lost the plot in the last two round and his scores of 99 and 97 saw him crash out of the Olympics. Bindra however shot 45 inners 10s.
However Gagan kept India in the medal hunt and has finished just a point behind the world number 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy and Romania's Moldoveanu Alin George who both shot an Olympic record-equalling 599.
Narang was on song from the first round and shot two perfect rounds but then a score of 98 in the third round somewhat seemed that it would dent his hopes.
But then he kept his cool and he shot three perfect rounds of 100 on the trot to make it to the finals.
Narang who set world record twice in the past and won four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 would now vie with seven other shooters for glory.
Results:
Top 8 in 10m Air Rifle
1. Campriani Niccolo – 599
2. Moldoveanu Alin George – 599
3. Narang Gagan – 598
4. Wang Tao – 598
5. Charheika Illia – 597 (52 inn
6. Bakken Ole Magnus – 597
7. Hellenbrand Peter – 596
8. Piasecki Pierre Edmond – 596
16. Bindra Abhinav – 594
By Indian Sports News Network
