Former world and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra gave a hint of his good form as he won the air rifle gold ahead of compatriot Chain Singh in the International Shooting Championship in Hannover, Germany.
Bindra, who pipped Chain by 2.2 points, emerged on top in a strong field of 86 shooters, including Peter Sidi, the former world champion who has already booked an Olympic quota place for the Rio Games. Sidi finished third.
Chain won the rifle prone event, beating Lionel Cox of Belgium by 0.4 point.
Gagan Narang, who failed to make the final in air rifle, managed to take the bronze in the 50-metre free rifle 3-position event.
In women’s air rifle, Apurvi Chandela, who won the second Olympic quota place for India recently, bagged the bronze behind two Germans. Lajja Gauswami claimed the women’s rifle prone event, beating Julia Siimon of Germany by 1.2 points.
The Indian juniors, too, came up with morale-boosting performances against quality competition. Chinki Yadav and Oshin Tawani won the gold and silver in junior women’s sports pistol, while Chinki finished seventh in junior women’s air pistol.
In junior men’s air rifle, Akhil Sheoran claimed the bronze after qualifying third with a score of 621.6.
The Indian team was in Germany to prepare for the World Cup in rifle and pistol to be held in Fort Benning, US, from May 13.
The results:
Men: Air rifle: 1. Abhinav Bindra 208.2 (628.0); 2. Chain Singh 206.0 (626.2); 3. Peter Sidi (Hun) 185.6 (625.3); 15. Gagan Narang 620.3; 49. Sanjeev Rajput 612.1; 50. Navdeep Singh Rathore 612.1.
Rifle prone: 1. Chain Singh 208.1 (623.3); 2. Lionel Cox (Bel) 207.7 (624.7); 3. Torben Grimmel (Den) 187.0 (624.9); 29. Gagan Narang 619.8; 50. Sanjeev Rajput 617.2; 91. Navdeep Singh Rathore 606.6.
Rifle 3P: 1. Alexis Raynaud (Fra) 459.5 (1172); 2. Andre Link (Ger) 458.8 (1161); 3. Gagan Narang 447.1 (1159); 41. Navdeep Singh Rathore 1134.
Centre fire pistol: 1. Amit Kumar 571; 2. Ankush Bhardwaj 566; 3. Ashok Pandit 560.
Standard pistol: 1. Ajitesh Kaushal 561; 2. Tosif Sayyed 553; 3. Andrey Ponomarev (Kaz) 546(46); 4. Ashok Pandit 546 (38).
Women: Air rifle: 1. Selina Gschwandtner (Ger) 209.8 (416.2); 2. Nina-Laura Kreutzer (Ger) 209.5 (418.3); 3. Apurvi Chandela 188.1 (417.8); 44. Aprajita Singh 409.5; 51. Gargi Sarkar 408.3; 54. Tejaswini Sawant 408.0; 84. K.C. Hema 394.8.
Rifle prone: 1. Lajja Gauswami 622.7; 2. Julia Simon (Ger) 621.5; 3. Jaqueline Orth (Ger) 621.0; 8. Anjum Moudgil 620.1; 19. Kuheli Gangulee 614.5; 25. Anuja Jung 613.2; 26. Tejaswini Sawant 613.0; 30. Elizabeth Susan Koshy 612.3; 40. Rajkumari Rathore 609.7.
