Heartbreak for India as Germany steal win with late goal

Bindra started brightly in the final round and improved with every shot raising the hopes of winning his second Olympic medal and also the first for the country in this Games.

At the end of the fourth series, Bindra moved to fifth to be on course for qualification.

Indian shooter and Olympic gold medal victor Abhinav Bindra is all set to compete in the men’s 10m air rifle qualification round today.

Monday’s disappointment will see the curtains come down on the glittering career of the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medallist – India’s only individual Olympic gold – as he had earlier announced that he will announce his global retirement after the Rio Olympics. 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. By the time the competition reach the eliminations, Bindra had safe-guarded his position in top three. Hits of 10.8, 10.7 and 10.7 even carried him into second place.

This was the last Olympics for Abhinav Bindra as the legend would now retire.

While Bindra will bid farewell to his medal aspirations, Narang has another chance in the men’s 50m rifle shooting event.

With two shots left, he was lingering at the 12th before he shot a 10.8 in his penultimate effort and 10.6 in the final attempt to make it to the final list of eight shooters.

Narang too waxed lyrical of Bindra saying: “It is sad we will not get to see him shoot again”. For the most part of the round, consisting nine series, Bindra was among the top three constantly scoring 10 and above.

However, London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang was way off the mark and missed out of the finals after finishing at a lowly 23rd position.

After his 102.1 in the third series, there was a slight recovery with 103.4.