Gagan Narang wins first medal for india
London. Shooter Gagan Narang brings smiles to the crores of indians on Monday by winning the bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle in London Olympic, but Beijing Games gold medallist Abhinav Bindra flopped and exited in the preliminaries.
29-year-old Narang lived upto expectations to claim the bronze, the third shooting medal in India’s Olympic history, but his overall performance was below his personal best.
Spurred on by the vociferous support of a sizeable Indian supporters and officials at the venue, Narang was done in by two poor scores of 9.7 (second round) and 9.5 (eighth round), which ultimately pegged him down to the third position.
Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania bagged the coveted gold medal with a total of 702.1 while Italy’s Niccolo Campriani took the silver with a score of 701.5.
Narang, who had taken part in the Athens and Beijing Games, and missed final berths by a whisker, was understandably relieved to have fulfilled his dream of winning an Olympic medal.
“It is like a huge stone is off my chest. I had not managed to qualify for the finals in the last two Olympics and that was really painful, But now I am happy to have finally won an Olympic medal,” Narang told reporters here.
Narang, who won four gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi followed by two silver in the Guangzhou Asian Games a month later, said he was not really satisfied with his performance and should have returned with a better score.
“I am not really happy. My coach is also not happy with the score. Scoring 600 is always challenging, but I made a few technical mistakes at certain points. But then an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal,” he said.
Asked whether the celebrations back home would serve as a distraction for him in the two other events, he said “I don’t know what is happening back home. I am trying to stay focused for my two other events.
The 29-year-old Punjabi now based in Hyderabad fought his way back into the reckoning for the medal round with a perfect 100 in the fourth series and then clinched the final spot as the third best performer by notching up two more 100s in his last two rounds.
Narang, who had sailed into the medal round with a score of 598 out of 600, will also compete in the 50m rifle 3-position and prone events.
His medal-winning effort, the first for India on the third day of competitions here, lifted the spirits of the Indian camp who were left dazed by the unexpected elimination of Bindra in the qualifying rounds.
Narang’s feat, that opened the medal chest for the country, made up for the losses suffered by Bindra.
While Narang sailed into the medal round as the third-best scorer in the preliminaries before clinching the bronze, Bindra started poorly that cost him dearly in the race to earn the berth in the finals.
Narang finished third in the qualifications with 598 and started the finals well by shooting 10.7 in the first round. He then had a poor shot of 9.7 in the second round, though he made amends by reeling off scores of 10.7 10.4 and 10.6 in the subsequent rounds.
With pressure mounting on him to be consistent, Narang produced a 10.7 in the very last round to ensure that he remained in the medal bracket.
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Ace marksman Gagan Narang
The Indian men’s doubles team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, seeded 7th, overcame Max Miranyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus 7-6 (4) 6-7 (4) 8-6 in two hours and 26 minutes to enter the pre quarter finals.
They will now fight it out with French combination of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet.
Earlier, 304-ranked Vardhan fought hard but could not make the most of the lucky opportunity he got to compete in singles as he lost 3-6 2-6 to world number 77 Blaz Kavcic.
Vardhan had entered the men’s singles draw when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew due to a right hamstring injury.
Indian men opened their hockey campaign with a narrow 2-3 defeat to the strong Netherlands in Group B.
There were reverses in other fronts too, including a controversial loss suffered by boxer Sumit Sangwan who lost 14-15 to Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao Floren in the first round of the men’s light heavyweight category.
The verdict prompted the Indian team to lodge an official protest with the tournament organisers who felt Sangwan deserved to have got more points in the second round which was controversially awarded to the Brazilian despite the Indian’s clear domination.
In hockey, ranked 10th in the world, Indian made the third ranked Netherlands sweat it out for victory after trailing 2-0 at half time.
Robert van der Horst (20th minute) opened the scoring for the Dutch with a fierce hit from top of the circle and then Roderick Weusthof doubled the margin nine minutes later, converting a penalty corner.
The Indians, however, came out with vengeance after the change of ends and scored two goals within a span of three minutes to level the scoreline.
Dharanvir Singh (45th minute) scored India’s first goal after capitalising on a rebound and then striker Shivendra Singh tapped home from close quarters three minutes later after receiving a ball from Gurvinder Singh Chandi.
But it was not to be India’s day as Mink van der Weerden converted another penalty corner in the 51st minute to seal the match.
Woman archer L Bambayla Devi and tennis player Vishnu Vardhan put up tame displays and departed from the Games.
The stellar performer of the day was Narang, who had clinched four gold medals at the 2010 Delhi CWG.
The 29-year-old Hyderabadi kept his focus and cool in the gripping eight-man finale to stave off the challenge of Chinese rival Wang Tao and end up third with an aggregate of 701.1. He thus made amends of his disappointing 9th place finish four years ago in Beijing.
Narang finished behind Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania and world No 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy who tallied 702.1 and 701.5 to win gold and silver respectively.
While Narang celebrated his medal-winning feat that fetched the country its third in shooting and 8th individual medal overall at the Olympics, his teammate Bindra not only failed to climb the podium but also slipped to the 16th spot in the qualifiers with a tally of 594 out of 600.
Bindra, who created history and a frenzy four years ago at Beijing when he won the gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event — the first ever individual Olympic title won by an Indian — performed way below par and made a tame exit.
He ended up a distant 16th from among 47 competitors to end his campaign at the Games on a disappointing note.
There was another setback for the country’s sagging hopes in the archery competition when Laishram Bambayla Devi was ousted from the women’s individual event at the pre-quarterfinal stage by Roman Aida of Mexico 6-2.
Bambayla had raised slim visions of a medal when she performed superbly to enter the last 16 by dispatching first round rival Evangelia Psarra of Greece easily with a 6-4 margin.
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