No roses for India's golden gun

Abhinav Bindra finishes fourth in 10M air rifle in his final Games; Narang crashes out early

There was no gold for India and no golden farewell for Abhinav Bindra on Monday at the Olympic Shooting Centre.

India’s only individual Olympic gold medal winner faded away like a warrior though -- fighting hard, trying his best and finally bowing out in a shoot-off to finish fourth in the 10M air rifle final.

It was awfully close, as most finals at the top level are. An error of the slightest variety could pull you down, snuff out your medal chances. Bindra calibre shone through when he touched the high tens in the final but he erred too on a couple of occasions, leaving him high and dry.

“I am fourth in the world, I could have done better but that is the way it ends,” said the 33-year-old who had announced that this would be his final Olympic Games.

In anticipation of his success, the final hall had a large Indian presence, cheering and waving the Tricolour. Instead, it was the Italians who celebrated at the last shot, with Niccolo Campriani, guided by Bindra’s former coach Gaby Buhlmann, claiming the gold.

Campriani, the silver medallist in London who had also won the 50M rifle 3-position gold, shot 206.1 to defeat Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish (204.6) for the first place. Vladimir Masselnikov of Russia claimed the bronze at 184.2.

In five Games starting with Sydney 2000, Bindra’s best came at Beijing in 2008 when he won the gold medal with a terrific performance. He had come close in Athens 2004 but was let down by a faulty floor on his firing lane at the final range as he finished seventh.

On Monday, Bindra seemed prepared for a dream conclusion to his career. He qualified in seventh position with a 625.7 in the morning and fought every step of the way in the 20-shot final to come into medal contention. Seventh after six shots in the final, he stared at early elimination but a brilliant 10.7 in the seventh shot lifted him to fifth position.

The Indian champion seemed in a zone when he fired 104, 10.8, 10.7 and another 10.7 to soar to silver medal position after 11 shots, just 0.5 point behind the leader Kulish. But a 9.7 and a 9.9 in the 13th and 15th shots pegged him back to fourth position. As Maselnnikov and Campriani moved up, Bindra rallied with a 10.2 to be on par with Kulish in third spot, forcing a shoot-off.

Bindra shot a 10.0 and immediately realised he had not done enough. Kulish, with a 10.5, moved into the top three while Bindra pulled off his gloves to step out of the spotlight that was his by right, eight years ago. Emotional he certainly was, but Bindra handled it well, as he has always done.

Watching from the stands, his team-mate Gagan Narang empathised with Bindra. “It would have been better if he had signed off with the gold. But I am sure he has evaluated himself. I would have been happy to see him go out on a high,” said Narang, who himself didn’t have a good day. The Hyderabadi started well, but faded midway through and ended in 23rd position with a score of 621.7. India didn’t have any good news from the trap range as well. Manavjit Sandhu ended 16th with a total of 115 and Kynan Chenai finished 19th with 114.

Manavjit had scores of 25 and 22 on the day while Chenai shot 24 and 23, failing to make the final.

Results: Men: 10M air rifle: Niccolo Campriani (Ita) 206.1, 1; Serhiy Kulish (Ukr) 204.6, 2; Vladimir Masselnikov (Russia) 184.2, 3.