LONDON, July 30: Ace marksman Gagan Narang scooped India’s first medal in the Olympic Games by winning the bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle after Beijing Games gold medalist Abhinav Bindra tripped in the preliminaries here today.
The 29-year-old star performer of the 2010 Delhi CWG, where he clinched four gold medals, held his nerve in a gripping eight-man finale to stave off the challenge of Chinese rival Wang Tao to end up third with an aggregate of 701.1. He thus made amends of his disappointing 9th place finish four years ago in Beijing.
Narang finished behind Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania and world No 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy who tallied 702.1 and 701.5 to win gold and silver respectively.
While Narang celebrated his medal-winning feat that fetched the country its third in shooting and 8th individual medal overall at the Olympics, his teammate Bindra not only failed to climb the podium but also slipped to the 16th spot in the qualifiers with a tally of 594 out of 600.
Narang was bang on target from the very beginning, scoring two successive 100s, but a 98 in the third series of qualifiers somewhat let him down.
The 29-year-old Punjabi now based in Hyderabad, however, kept his cool and fought his way back into the reckoning for the medal round with a perfect 100 in the fourth series and then clinched the final spot as the third best performer by notching up two more 100s in his last two rounds.
Narang, who had sailed into the medal round with a score of 598 out of 600, will also compete in the 50m rifle 3-position and prone events.
His medal-winning effort, the first for India on the third day of competitions here, has lifted the spirits of the Indian camp who were left dazed by the unexpected elimination of Bindra in the qualifying rounds.
Narang’s feat, that opened the medal chest for the country, made up for the losses suffered by Bindra, woman archer L Bambayla Devi, boxer Sumit Sangwan and tennis player Vishnu Vardhan, all of whom exited from the Games. (PTI)
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