Rio Olympics 2016: Abhinav Bindra makes it to 10m air rifle finals; Gagan Narang crashes out

Rio de Janeiro: Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra on Monday qualified for the final of the men’s 10m Air Rifle event even as Gagan Narang crashed out on day three of the Rio Olympics 2016. Beijing Olympics gold-medallist Bindra finished seventh in the qualifying round to make the cut. [caption id=“attachment_2942916” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  10m air rifle is the only event Abhinav Bindra is competing in in the ongoing games. AP[/caption] However, London Olympics bronze-medallist Narang missed out after finishing at a lowly 23rd position. Bindra, who is taking part in his fifth and last Olympics, scored 625.7 to book a berth in the finals. This is the only event Bindra is competing in the ongoing Olympics. Campriani Niccolo of Italy topped the qualification with a score of 630.2, which is an Olympic record. Bindra, who crashed to a 16th place finish in 2012 London, scored 104.3, 104.4, 105.9, 103.8, 102.1 and 105.2. His last series of 105.2 proved to be the clincher for Bindra, who raised his game when it mattered the most. The final is slated later on Monday. Heena Sidhu, who bowed out of the 10m air pistol in the qualification round, will be seen in action tomorrow in 25m pistol. Narang had started off by picking up 73.7 points from his first seven shots before firing a 10.8 to jump to the pole position with 105.3 points. But he lost the plot in the consecutive rounds. After scoring 105.3 in his first round, Narang’s performance went down as he shot 104.5, 102.1, 103.4, 101.6, 104.8 in the next five rounds to finish with 621.7 points in the field of 50 shooters. The qualification round consisted of 60 shots in six rounds. Narang will now be competing in two more events – 50m rifle prone on 12 August and 50m rifle 3 positions on 14 August.