Rio De Janeiro: Abhinav Bindra made a great comeback later to finish the qualifying round at seventh in the event to enter the final of 10 M Air Rifle event at Rio 2016 Summer Games. Compatriot Gagan Narang however, couldn’t carry his brilliant start to the end and had to be content with 23rd rank meaning he’ll have to see for other events to realize his medal dreams. India is looking eagerly at these stars to make an inroad to the medal table at this edition of Summer Olympics and so far it is not very happy news coming from other sports except from Gymnastics & Rowing where Dipa Karmakar and Dattu Bhokanal have qualified for the finals and quarterfinals respectively. Another of India’s medal prospects, Jitu Rai, crashed out in 10 M Air Pistol event after making to the final of the event.
The Olympic Medalist pair from India are the biggest medal hopes for the country in Shooting event deemed to be the medal winner event for India and arguably so, it has been the medal winner event in past as well.
The only individual gold medalist, Bindra, shot 625.7 points (a series of 104.3, 104.4, 105.9, 103.8, 102.1 and 105.2), while the Olympic Bronze Medalist Narang scored 621.7 points (105.3, 104.5, 102.1, 103.4, 101.6 and 104.8).
Earlier Bindra had a not so great start to the qualifying round but he recovered from a jittery start to break into the top ten at the start of the third series of six, then as high as second place, before eventually holding onto a top-eight finish. The case for Narang, however, was opposite it seemed as he started off with being in number 1 to four before a downslide from second to slip out of the top 20. The final starts at 8:30 IST tonight and will be live telecast on Star Sports.