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| India’s Abhinav Bindra (C) poses with his gold medal flanked by Chinese shooters Qinan Zhu and Tao Wang yesterday |
It’s the Olympic year and the timing couldn’t have been more appropriate for India’s ace shooter Abhinav Bindra to hit form. India’s lone Olympic gold medallist, Bindra struck the first gold of the 12th Asian Shooting Championship by winning the men’s 10m Air Rifle event with a total of 701.1 points at the Lusail International Shooting Circuit, here yesterday.
The silver and bronze went to China’s Qinan Zhu and Tao Wang, respectively. Zhu, who had won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, accumulated 700.8 points, while Wang amassed 699.9 points.
However, the Chinese team went on the clinch the 10m Air Rifle team gold ahead of India, setting a new World and Asian record with a grand total of 1,793 points.Zhu, Wang and Liu Tianyou shot a stunning 153 ten-pointers among themselves. The bronze went to Bayara Nyantai, Bishrel Boldbaatar and Enkhsaihan Olzod of Mongolia with a total of 1,773 points. The Chinese trio thus eclipsed the world record of 1,792 points set by Russia’s Denis Sokolov, Serguei Kruglov and Prikhodtchenko Konstantin in the 2008 European Cup final in Winterthur, Switzerland.
“I’m very happy with my performance. It’s a good start to the year. We have a long year ahead and I’m very much looking forward to it. As far as the team event goes, all I can say is that I played my part. It is not up to me alone and there are two other teammates,” said Bindra.
“We did win a medal so it is pretty good. I cannot say that I can transform this success to a win in the future (Olympics). Here, it is done and it’s good; that’s all I can say,” added Bindra, who was trailing both Zhu and Wang by a point each going into the final round. However, Bindra remained undeterred and held his nerve and managed two scores of 10.5 from his last two shots to beat Zhu, who struck 9.8 and 10.3 from his last two attempts.
This was Bindra’s first major triumph after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bindra’s last success came in his own backyard at the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi and that too, in unison with Gagan Narang. The duo then set a Games record of 1193 in 10m Air Rifle pair’s event for men. In the process, the pair also broke their own record of 1,189 set four years back in Melbourne. Bindra’s performance had hit a low during the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010, where he returned empty handed.
Yesterday, Commonwealth Games four gold medallist Narang had a forgettable day as he had to be content with the fourth spot after starting poorly at the beginning of his qualifying round. Gagan finished the qualifying with a total of 595 points, three points less than Wang and Zhu.
It was always going be an uphill task for Narang going into the final round and though he bridged the gap of two points, it was not enough to provide him a podium finish.Bindra and Narang’s teammate Satendra Singh also performed way below par. Singh just managed to bag 582 points from his round.“I’m disappointed with the way Singh performed. However, the Chinese were way above us. They had already taken a comprehensive lead and the record in itself speaks how good they were on the day. We still have a lot of catching up to do ahead of the Olympics,” said India team coach Sunny Thomas.
“I’m very pleased with the way Bindra performed today. It was a keenly contested final round and he just managed to sneak ahead in the end. What let Bindra down was the start, he did well in the final round and finished with 103.2 but this qualifying slip made him pay dearly. Overall, happy to start the first day with a gold and silver in the team,” felt Thomas.Chinese coach Chang Jing Chun was very pleased with the way his shooters went about the task. “We were aiming to set a new mark and I’m happy with the way our shooters have performed here.
“We always expected a good result from them as they have clinched the Olympic quota and are now looking to build on it. We are hoping for more solid performance from our shooters here.”