Rio Olympics: Abhinav Bindra Misses Medal by Whisker, Other Shooters Disappoint

Abhinav Bindra finished an agonising fourth in what was his last Olympics and missed a medal by a whisker in the men's 10-metre air rifle final at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.

India's only individual Olympic champion, Bindra was in the fray for the medal from the start of the final. But at the end was tied with Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine for third spot with 163.8 points after 16 shots.

In the shootout, Bindra, playing in his fifth Olympics, shot a 10 while Kulish got a score of 10.5 which made the Ukrainian enter the medal rounds.

Bindra 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.

Well tried and hard luck in #Rio2016. We are proud of all your achievements @Abhinav_Bindra and what you have done for India.

- sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) August 8, 2016

The 33-year-old Indian, who won a gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same event, was in second spot at one time but lost places later on. He was fourth at first elimination round but jumped to No.2 after the second elimination round.

Abhinav,you are and will always be an inspiration for young India. My hats off to you for your valiant effort @Abhinav_Bindra @narendramodi

- Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) August 8, 2016

Bindra scored a fantastic 10.7 in his 11th shot to jump to second but moved back to third after the third elimination round.

Two mediocre shots took him to fourth after the fourth elimination round but he bounced back with scores of 10.6 and 10.2.

But that was not enough for Bindra to stay clear in top-3 as he was tied at third spot with Kulish at 163.8 points.

Despite a 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.

Excruciating to watch... Great effort by abhinav bindra to finish 4th.. Closest we have come to a medal so far...

- Somdev Devvarman (@SomdevD) August 8, 2016

Italy's Niccolo Campriani, silver medalist in the London Games four years ago, won the gold while Kulish and Russian Vladimir Maslennikov took silver and bronze respectively.

Earlier in the day, Bindra had qualified for the finals in seventh spot while London Olympics bronze-medallist Gagan Narang missed out after finishing at a lowly 23rd.

Bindra had scored 625.7 to book a berth in the finals out of 50 participants. This is the only event Bindra was competing in the ongoing Olympics.

Campriani, who eventually won gold and created a Final Olympic Record, had also topped the qualification with a score of 630.2, which is an Olympic record.

Manavjit, Chenai fail to qualify

Trap shooters Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai could hardly improve on their opening day performance and failed to qualify for the men's trap semi-finals, signing off at 16th and 19th respectively on the second and final day of qualification.

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 on a disappointing note. Only the top six from the two-day qualifiers made the cut for the semis.

It was particularly disappointing for Manavjit, who had pulled himself into contention by being seventh at one stage with a perfect 25 in the fourth round.

Dear @ManavRathore99 ,lessons from @Abhinav_Bindra @Rio2016 Olympic performance; live for a dream & never give up, u will always be a winner

- Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) August 8, 2016

However, he could not sustain the form and ended with a 22 in the final round to finish at a disappointing 16th.

Chenai, on the other hand, could never rise from Sunday's 19th.

Italian Giovanni Pellielo topped the two-day qualifications with a score of 122, followed by Brit Edward Ling (120). Croat Josip Glasnovic (120) ended third.

(With PTI inputs)