Former World and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra was in roaring form as he won back to back gold medals in the InterShoot shooting championship at the Hague in the Netherlands.
In a lively competition in which the current Olympic champion Alin George Moldoveanu was pushed to the silver and bronze medals, Bindra was in excellent touch. He shot 209.0 and 209.3 in the two finals to outclass the field by 3.3 and 2.4 points respectively.
Interestingly, Bindra had topped the qualifiers on Friday in the second competition with a total of 627.7, 6.6 better than the second placed qualifier.
In the first competition on Thursday, Bindra had qualified in the eighth place with 613.3, but beat the top qualifier Peter Hellenbrand of Holland in a strong climax as he wound up with the last two shots of 10.6 and 10.8.
Bindra had given a hint of his strength in qualification a fortnight back in Munich, Germany, in the IWK competition with qualification scores of 628.9 and 627.9. His was not the best score in those fields and Bindra had placed fourth and fifth eventually in those two events.
Gold for ApurviThere was more good news for Indian shooting, as the former women’s national champion in air rifle Apurvi Chandela won the gold in the first competition with a total of 208.9, beating Stine Andersen, an Independent Olympic Athlete, by 3.6 points.
Apurvi, who won the bronze in the recent national championship had topped the qualifiers with a total of 414.6.
In the second competition in women’s rifle, Apurvi finished third as she missed a better medal by 0.4 point, after having topped the qualifiers once again with a score of 414.2.
The InterShoot will continue with the third competition on Saturday.
The results:
Men: Air rifle-2: 1. Abhinav Bindra 209.0 (627.7); 2. Alin George Moldoveanu (Rom) 205.7 (621.0); 3. Jorgen C. Persson (Swe) 184.1 (615.7).
Air rifle-1: 1. Abhinav Bindra 209.3 (613.3); 2. Peter Hellenbrand (Ned) 206.9 (628.9); 3. Alin George Moldoveanu (Rom) 185.7 (624.4).
Women: Air rifle-2: 1. Jennifer McIntosh (Sco) 209.1 (413.9); 2. Stine ndersen (Oly) 205.8 (414.0); 3. Apurvi Chandela 185.4 (414.2); 6. Suma Shirur 121.3 (411.9); 17. Neha Chaphekar 406.4.
Air rifle-1: 1. Apurvi Chandela 208.9 (414.6); 2. Stine Andersen (Oly) 205.3 (414.0); 3. Roxane Georgiana Tudose (Rom) 183.7 (413.6); 5. Suma Shirur 142.0 (409.9); 7. Neha Chaphekar 100.0 (409.8).
