India’s only individual Olympic gold medalist, Abhinav Bindra ended his glorious Olympic career with a fourth-place finish in the 10 metre Air Rifle final on Monday.
Having qualified in seventh position for the finale, Bindra made the cuts till it went down to the last four shooters. Tied for third place with 163.8 points after 16 shots with Ukraina’s Serhiy Kulish, Bindra slipped in the shoot-out. Ultimately settling for fourth place.
So Near Yet so Far for Bindra
Bindra, the country’s lone individual Olympic gold medallist, lost the shoot-off against Ukrainian Serhiy Kulish after both were tied for third place at 163.8 points after 16 shots.
Bindra started well and could at least have bagged a bronze had he won the shoot-off. The 33-year-old Indian, who won a gold in 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same event, was at the second spot at one time but lost out later on.
Bindra scored a fantastic 10.7 in his 11th shot to jump to second spot but moved back to third after the third elimination round. Two mediocre shots took him to fourth spot after the fourth elimination round but he bounced back in the next round with scores of 10.6 and 10.2. But that was not enough for Bindra to stay clear in the top three.
Curtains on the Career of India’s Golden Boy
Despite strong backing of Indian supporters cheering him, Bindra just could not make it count in the shoot-off as he was beaten by his opponent and with it ended his dreams of becoming a double Olympic medallist and join wrestler Sushil Kumar.
Italy’s Niccolo Campriani, silver medallist in the London Games four years ago, won the gold while Kulish and Russian Vladimir Maslennikov took the silver and bronze respectively. Earlier in the day, Bindra had qualified for the finals at seventh spot while London Olympics bronze-medallist Gagan Narang missed out after finishing at a lowly 23rd position. Bindra had scored 625.7 to book a berth in the finals.
Monday’s disappointment will see the curtains come down on the glittering career of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist — India’s only individual Olympic gold — as he had earlier announced that he will announce his international retirement after the Rio Olympics.
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