Rio 2016 | Abhinav Bindra qualifies for final; Gagan Narang disappoints

08/08/2016

2008 Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra qualified for the men’s 10m air rifle event in the 2016 Rio Olympics on Monday after he scored 625.7 to finish 7th in the event. However, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang finished at a disappointing 23rd with 621.7 to miss out on the finals.

2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang started the qualification round on a bang and shot 105.3 in the first series to take the top spot. On the other side, 2008 Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra started slowly and only managed 104.3 in the first series.

But, Narang slipped down the table in the next series after he scored 104.5, while Bindra moved up quickly with a good second series of 104.4. In the third series, Bindra hit a brilliant 105.9 to move up into the top-5 as he looked on course to make it to another Olympic final. On other side, Narang, who was joint-top after the first series, continued to slip up and scored a poor 102.1 to end up at 21st after 30 shots.

Although Bindra hit a 103.8, he maintained his place in the top-8 to remain in contention for the final. Narang took a break after 35 shots and came back with a bang by hitting a 10.9, then a 10.2 to move up in the ranks. From 23rd, he quickly moved up to 17th after just five shots. He finished the fourth series with 103.4.

Like his compatriot Narang, Bindra also took a break after 40 shots before going for the last two series. However, the fifth series did not start well for the 2008 Olympic gold medallist. Few shots of low scores pushed him out of the top-8 as India’s hopes of another final looked like fading away. Narang’s comeback also did not go according to plan, and he hit a 101.6 in the fifth series to slip into the 20s, ending his hopes of a final. He hit 104.8 in the final series to finish

Bindra needed a big final series to qualify for the finals and he did the same by hitting a 105.9 to jump back into the top-8. However, he had to wait for the other shooter to confirm his entry into the final.

Niccolo Campriani of Italy finished on the top of the standing with an Olympic record score of 630.2, this being the first Olympics where the decimal scoring system is used in qualification round.

The final event will take place at 8.30pm IST today. The match will be live on Star Sports 2 and HD 2.