London Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang finished fifth in Men’s 10m Air Rifle at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
Gagan, who is recuperating from a neck injury, struggled in the initial rounds, making it to the finals. In the finals he shot 144.5 to finish at the fifth position.
Three years, several hours of training and injury management. Glad to be back in Air Rifle #just another beginning. @ISSF_ShootingWorldCup
— GAGAN NARANG (@gaGunNarang) August 10, 2015
Cao Yifei of China won the gold after shoting 207.4 in the finals, while Kim Sang Do (206.9) of South Korea finished with the silver and Petar Gorsa (186.5) of Croatia bagged the bronze.
Abhinav Bindra finished 14th after shooting a qualification score of 625.5 (103.9,104.9,103.6,105.7,104.6,102.8), his 102.8 in the last series costed him a place in the finals for top eight which closed at 626.7. Both Abhinav and Gagan have however already booked quota places for next year’s Rio Olympics and would not be eligible for any more quotas as a result in any of the events.
After the precision round of the Women’s 25m Pistol event, Annu Raj Singh was placed at 20th with a score of 288/300, Anisa Sayeed was at 49th with 285/300 while Rahi Sarnobat ended her day in the 57th position after shooting a score of 284/300. There positions are most likely to change as per their performances in the Rapid fire stage of the event on Tuesday.
In the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event, all three Indian shooters failed to impress. Pooja Ghatkar was the best among the Indian’s as she shot a score of 413.8 to finish 30th. Olympic quota winner Apurvi Chandela shot 412.6 to finish 45th while Ayonika Paul registered a score of 411.2 for a 57th place finish.
Iran’s Elaheh Ahmadi and Najmeh Khedmati won the gold and bronze respectively while silver was won by Zhang Binbin of China. Iran also won both the Olympic quotas in this event.
