Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Kynan Chenai narrowly missed out on medals after qualifying for the finals of their respective events at the year’s last ISSF World Cup being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The high scores are a morale-booster for the three Olympics-bound shooters before the Rio Olympics.
Bindra, India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist and Narang, Olympic bronze medallist, reached the┬áfinals of the air rifle, while youngster Chenai, who will be embarking upon his first Olympics also┬áreached the men’s trap final.
Bindra eventually finished seventh in the event after having shot a solid 627.4 (104.1, 105.7, 103.4, 105.9, 105.0, 103.3) in the qualification. This was Bindra’s best qualification score at an ISSF World Cup this year. He had shot 626.2 at RIo World Cup and 622.7 at the World Cup in Bangkok earlier this year.
Bindra tweeted that he was satisfied with his performance in Baku.
A satisfying competition in Baku. Just landed into Frankfurt. In Germany for the next 5 weeks.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) June 24, 2016
Narang shot 626.6 (104.0, 105.4, 104.7, 105.4, 102.6, 104.5) to qualify for the final round today, but finished one rank ahead of Bindra at the sixth position in the final standings.
Like Bindra, this was Narang’s top qualification score at the World Cups this year. He had shot 622.8 at the Rio World Cup.
25-year-old Chenai shot a superb 123 (25,24,25,25,24) to qualify for the finals in second place. In the finals, he was the first to be eliminated, having shot 12 birds out of 15 to end in sixth place. He had shot 123 in the World Cup in Gabala last year.
Among the other Indians in the fray, Chain Singh in the men’s 10m air rifle, who will also be taking the flight to Rio come end July, shot a subdued 623.7 (103.8, 104.1, 103.6, 103.4, 104.0, 104.8) to finish 25th in a field of 60 shooters.
Prithviraj Tondaiman also finished in 25th place, in the men’s trap, having shot a score of 116 in qualifying. The
third Indian in men’s trap, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, also shot the same score to finish 27th.
In the Women’s 10m Air Pistol, India’s Heena Sidhu shot a qualification score of 379 to finish┬áin 26th spot, while compatriot Shweta Singh shot 376 to end in 39th place. Anisa Sayed shot 369 in the same event to end in 54th position.
The Results:
Men’s 10m Air Rifle: 1. Filip Nepejchal (Cze) 206.8 (627.7); 2. Hossein Bagheri (Iri) 206.2 (626.7); 3. Sergey Richter (Isr) 184.6 (626.5); 6. Gagan Narang 123.1 (626.6); 7. Abhinav Bindra 102.3 (627.4); 25. Chain Singh 623.7. MQS: Sanjeev Rajput 616.9.
Men’s Trap: 1. Gian Marco Berti (Smr) 14 (10) 14 (121); 2. Erik Varga (Svk) 14 (9) 14 (120); 3. Piotr Kowalczyk (Pol) 14 (13) 121; 4. Herve Boivin (Fra) 11 (13) 123; 6. Kynan Chenai 12 (123); 25. Prithviraj Tondaiman 116; 27. Zoravar Singh 116.
Women’s 10m Air Pistol: 1. Olena Kostevych (Ukr) 200.2 (386); 2. Anna Korakaki (Gre) 199.1 (390); 3. Alejandra Zavala Vazquez (Mex) 175.9 (388); 26. Heena Sidhu 379; 39. Shweta Singh 376; 54. Anisa Sayyed 369.
Women’s Trap: 1. Satu Makela-Nummela (Fin) 14 (14) 70; 2. Ray Bassil (Lib) 13 (14) 73; 3. Alessia Iezzi (Ita) 14 (13) 72; 4. Laetisha Scanlan (Aus) 13 (12) 70; 21. Seema Tomar 65; 22. Shagun Chowdhary 65; 26. Rajeshwari Kumari 64.