Sanjeev Rajput pulled off a surprise by winning the gold medal ahead of his illustrious compatriot Abhinav Bindra in the men’s 10M air rifle event at an international shooting competition at Hannover, Germany.

Rajput, with his impressive performance, made a bold statement that he was not just good in the 50 metre events but could also upset the world’s best 10M air rifle shooters on any given day.

Rajput shot series of 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 and 98 to register a qualification score of 598 and then followed it up with a 102.8 in the final round to win the gold.

Bindra, who shot a qualification score of 594 (99, 99, 99, 100, 99, 98), made sure it was one-two for India as he won the silver after shooting a good final round of 103.1.

The third Indian in the event, Gagan Narang, who recently won a bronze at the Beijing World Cup, shot a final score of 693.7 (593+100.7) to finish 8th. Gagan shot a qualification series of 99,100, 99, 97, 100 and 98.

The Indian trio of Rajput, Bindra and Narang also won the team gold with a total combined score of 1785/1800.

The silver went to Germany (1772) while Switzerland shot 1767 to claim the bronze.

In the women’s 50M 3-position event, Anjali Bhagwat finished fifth with a tally of 678.5 (581+ 97.5) while Samresh Jung shot 676.1 (576+100.1) to finish fifth in the men’s air pistol event.

Sodhi fifth

Meanwhile, Ronjon Sodhi created a national record in double trap but still finished fifth, while his illustrious compatriot Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore continued to struggle for form as he came seventh in the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Kerrville, USA.

Sodhi shot an excellent score of 145/150 (49, 48, 48) to better Rathore’s mark of 144/150, which was set in Bangkok in 2005.

Sodhi topped the qualifying event to storm into the final but just when he needed to raise his game, the Indian faltered and shot a lowly 38/50 to finish fifth.

Rathore shot 140 (47, 47, 46) and was tied for sixth place with two other shooters from USA and Russia. The Athens Olympic silver medalist missed out on a final spot after a tie-shoot and finished seventh.

Hakan Dalby of Sweden won the gold with a total of 190 (144 + 46) while Richard Faulds of Britain claimed the silver with 189 (142, 47). Faulds pipped Jeffrey Holguin of the United States on a tie-shoot.

Among other Indians, Vikram Bhatnagar was ranked 19th with a score of 130 (39, 50, 41) and in the MQS category, Mohd Asab shot 136/150 while Ajay Mittal managed 126/150.