Rio Olympics: Abhinav Bindra Misses Medal by Whisker
RIO: Abhinav Bindra finished an agonising fourth in what was his last Olympics and missed a medal by a whisker in the men’s 10-metre air rifle final at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro on Monday India’s only individual Olympic champion, Bindra was in the fray for the medal from the start of the final. But at the end was tied with Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine for third spot with 163.8 points after 16 shots.
In the shootout, Bindra, playing in his fifth and final Olympics, shot a 10 while Kulish got a score of 10.5 which made Kulish enter the medal rounds.Bindra was deprived of a fairytale ending of his glorious career as he was the fifth shooter to be eliminated in the race for the podium. He could at least have bagged a bronze had he won the shoot-off.
The 33-year-old Indian, who won a gold in 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same event, was in second spot at one time but lost places later on. He was fourth at first elimination round but jumped to second after the second elimination round.
Bindra scored a fantastic 10.7 in his 11th shot to jump to second but moved back to third after the third elimination round.Two mediocre shots took him to fourth after the fourth elimination round but he bounced back with scores of 10.6 and 10.2.But that was not enough for Bindra to stay clear in top-3 as he was tied at third spot with Ukrainian Kulish at 163.8 points.
Despite a strong backing of Indian supporters cheering him, Bindra just could not make it count in the shoot-off as he was beaten by his opponent and with it ended his dreams of becoming a double Olympic medallist and join wrestler Sushil Kumar.Italy’s Niccolo Campriani, silver medalist in the London Games four years ago, won the gold while Kulish and Russian Vladimir Maslennikov took the silver and bronze respectively.
Earlier in the day, Bindra had qualified for the finals at seventh spot while London Olympics bronze-medallist Gagan Narang missed out after finishing at a lowly 23rd position.Bindra had scored 625.7 to book a berth in the finals. This is the only event Bindra is competing in the ongoing Olympics.
Earlier, Bindra had qualified for the finals but 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang failed to enter the summit clash. Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai, on the other hand, also failed to qualify for the men’s trap semi-finals after two days of qualifying action.
In the 10m air rifle qualifiers, Narang finished 23rd with a total score of 621.7 while Bindra ended seventh with a total score of 625.7, out of 50 participants. Campriani Niccolo of Italy, who eventually won gold and to create a final Olympic record, had also topped the qualification with a score of 630.2, which is an Olympic record.
Bindra was taking part in his fifth and last Olympics and this is the only event the former World Champion was competing in the ongoing Games.Bindra shot scores of 29.9 and 30.2 in the first two series’ of the final while during elimination, Bindra shot 21.1, 21.5, 20.8, 20.2, 20.1 before being eliminated.
Manavjit, Chenai fail to qualify
Trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai could hardly improve on their opening day performance and failed to qualify for the Olympics men’s trap semifinals, signing off at 16th and 19th respectively on the second and final day of qualification here today.
While Manavjit shot 23, 23, 22, 25, 22 to total 115, Chenai ended with 22, 23, 22 24, 23 for a total of 114 to end their campaign in this event on a disappointing note. Only the top six from the two-day qualifiers made the cut for the semis.It was particularly disappointing for Manavjit, who had pulled himself into contention by being 8th at one stage with a perfect 25 in the fourth round.
However, he could not sustain the form and ended with a 22 in the final round to finish at a disappointing 16th.Chenai, on the other hand, could never rise from yesterday’s 19th.Italian Giovanni Pellielo topped the two-day qualifications with a score of 122, followed by Brit Edward Ling (120). Croat Josip Glasnovic (120) ended third. (With PTI inputs)
