The Hindu : Abhinav Bindra shoots a perfect 600

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 04, 2003

Sport

Sport - Shooting

Abhinav Bindra shoots a perfect 600

NEW DELHI MARCH 3. It is going to be an important season for air rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra, as he prepares in earnest to get the Olympic quota for Athens.

The 19-year old, pursuing business studies with emphasis on marketing in the University of Colarado from November last year, has announced his brilliant form with a perfect 600 out of 600 last week in the US.

Shooting a series of competitions with the likes of Jason Parker of the US and Peter Sidi of Hungary who have already confirmed their quota places for Athens, Abhinav came up with a string of impressive scores.

In the second match of the three-match series in Colarado Springs, Abhinav shot a perfect series of 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 and 100 for the magic 600. It may be noted that the national record standing against Abhinav's name is 598. He followed that up with a 103.9 in the final to take the first place with a total of 703.9.

Trevor Gathman and Peter Sidi finished seocnd and third respectively with 700.0 and 698.0 respectively.

Earlier, in the first competiton, Abhinav had taken the third position behind Parker and Sidi. Abhinav had a 598 in the preliminary series and 102.3 in the final then, for a 700.3. Parker had a total of 701.9 including the 103.9 in the final. Sidi had a 599 in the preliminary phase but only 101.9 in the final for a 700.9.

In the third competition, Abhinav was second as he shot a 597, with the fifth series being a 97, followed by a 103.4 in the final, for a 700.4. Parker took the gold 0.6 points ahead, while Sidi was third at 699.6.

In another knock-out competition, called the Top Gun, Abhinav took the bronze behind Parker and Gathman. Abhinav was first among 19 shooters with a 104.1 in the first round. In the quarterfinals he eliminated Manges 3-0. He lost to Parker in the semifinal with a 10.4 to 10.7 last shot for a 2-3 defeat. Parker went on to take the first place beating Gathman 3-1, while Bindra beat Hardy 3-0 for the bronze.

In the Rocky Mountain competition, held in the middle of February, in which results were tabulated after taking the aggregate of two matches, Abhinav shot 599 and 595 to finish second behind Peter Sidi who also shot the same total with scores of 598 and 596.

Abhijeet Konduskar, another talented Indian junior studying in the US, shot a 582 and 577 for a 1159 in the competition that featured 32 shooters.

``I am happy with the good scores in the matches last week. I will be competing in the Bavarian air gun competition followed by the international competition in Dortmund, Germany'', said Abhinav.

The World Cups for rifle and pistol, offering Olympic quota places, will be hosted in Fort Benning, Zagreb, Munich and Changwon from May to July.

Thereafter, the Indian pistol and rifle shooters will have a chance to grab quota places in the Asian shooting championship in Kuala Lumpur in August.

``I am working six days a week, and am optimistic'', said Abhinav, quietly confident about his ability to win a quota place.

Abhinav and Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat had been given `hardship quota' by the ISSF for the Sydney Olympics. Anjali has already confirmed a quota place for Athens by winning the silver in the Atlanta World Cup last year.

Trap shooter Anwer Sultan was the only Indian shooter to win a quota place for Sydney, as he clinched the silver in the Asian Shooting championship.

The shotgun marksmen will have a chance to win quota, from a highly competitive field in the World Cup scheduled to be held here from March 15.

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