Vijay Kumar narrowly missed out a bronze in centre-fire pistol as India fell short of medal standards in the Military World Games shooting competition on Thursday.

Vijay, who tied in third place with four other shooters, finally ended up fifth after a shoot-off at the Hyderabad University Range.

China won gold and silver in the event, with Liu Yadong topping with 588 points and Gao Zheng (587) taking the second place. Oleg Trachov of Ukraine, the winner of the shoot-off, had the bronze at 585.

Vijay, who also had shot 585 (290 in precision, 295 in dueling), could have sealed the bronze but for a score of nine in his final shot of the dueling stage. In the five-shot tie-shoot, he started well with a ten, but slipped badly with an eight in the second shot. The medal vanished then and there for Vijay, despite scoring all tens in his next three shots.

The Indian had a 48 in the shoot-off while Trachov was untouchable, scoring tens in each of his five shots for a total of 50. Yusuf Dikec of Turkey had a 49 for the fourth position. Other Indians failed to come near the medals.

C K Chaudhury ended 22nd with a 578, while Hambir Singh ended a rung below with the same score.
China's Xiaoxu Ding claimed the women's 25M pistol gold with a total of 584 points, finishing ahead of Munkhbayar Dorjsuren of Germany (583) and Monika Martin (580), also of Germany.