Bindra fails to qualify final round in Sydney world cup shooting

Sydney, Apr 27 (UNI) Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won a gold in Australia Cup earlier this week, finished a disappointing 30th and failed to qualify for final rounds in the men's 10m air rifle event of the ISSF World Cup here today.

Bindra, who had already qualified for Beijing Olympics, had a shaky start and, though he picked up later, missed out the final round with a series of 95, 99, 100, 99, 99, 99.

Compatriot Gagan Narang, who had also qualified for the Beijing Olympics, was no better and he finished 33rd with a score of 590 (96, 98, 99, 98, 100, 99) in the 70-shooter field.

PT Raghunath was the best Indian in the event and his shot of 594 (96, 99, 100, 100, 100, 99) fetched him 13th spot.

The gold in the event was won by Lin Yun of China with a score of 701.6 (597+104.6), silver by Knoegler Mario of Austria with a shot of 700.1 (597+103.1) and bronze by Sidi Peter of Hungary with a score of 699.6 (598+101.6).

Meanwhile, Harveen Srao narrowly missed the final round and finished 10th in the women's 10m air pistol event. Srao shot 381 with a series of 91, 96, 97 and 97 to miss the finals by two points and in the process failed to book an Olympic quota place.

Her compatriots fell by the wayside with Sonia Rai finishing 30th with a sore of 377 (95, 93, 95, 94) while Annu Raj Singh ended at 42nd with a shot score of 374 (93, 94, 94, 93) in a field of 54 shooters.

The gold in the event was won by Hu Jun of China with a score of 490.4 (387+103.4), silver by Ren Jie of China with a score of 489.7 (390+99.7) while Jasna Sekaric of Serbia won the bronze with a score of 484.5 (384+100.5).

Olympic quota place in this event was won by Polish shooter Miroslawa Sagun who finished fourth with a score of 483 (383+100).

UNI