Star Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra on Tuesday broke his Asian Games jinx by clinching his first individual medal - a bronze - in the men’s 10m air rifle and then said it could be his last major international competition as he has decided to become a hobby shooter from now on.
The 2008 Olympic gold medal winner, who powered the country to the team bronze in the company of teammates Sanjeev Rajput and Ravi Kumar earlier while qualifying for the finals with the fifth-best score, kept his cool in the face of stiff challenge in the eight-man finals before being eliminated after the 18th shot when his total score read 187.1 to take the bronze.
Bindra had a fine sequence of scores barring 9.9 and 9.6 on his 6th and 12th shots, and had to be content with the bronze medal after shooting 10.6 and 10.7 in his last two shots.
The gold medal was won by 18-year-old Chinese sensation Yang Haoran who came into the tournament as the clear favourite after winning the world title at Granada, Spain just prior to the Games.
Haoran tallied 209.6 to push teammate and defending champion Cao Yifei, who aggregated 208.9, to the silver.
