Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra’s quest for a second Olympics medal ended in heartbreak as he missed a medal by a whisker in a tense shoot-off in the men’s 10m air rifle event on the third day of competitions at the Rio Games on Monday.
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, who was playing in his fifth and final Olympics, was deprived of a fairytale ending of his glorious career as he was the fifth shooter to be eliminated in the race for the podium. He could at least have bagged a bronze had he won the shoot-off.
He was at the second spot at one time but lost places later on. He was fourth at first elimination round but jumped to second after the second 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 as he was tied at third spot with Ukrainian Kulish at 163.8 points.
Trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai could hardly improve on their opening day performance and failed to qualify for the Olympics men’s trap semifinals, signing off at 16th and 19th respectively.
While Manavjit shot 23, 23, 22, 25, 22 to total 115, Chenai ended with 22, 23, 22 24, 23 for a total of 114 to end their campaign in this event on a disappointing note. Only the top six from the two-day qualifiers made the cut for the semis.
