Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra has been in fine touch as he shot impressive scores in the two competitions at the Training Camp London for select shooters in France this week.
Bindra, who was crowned Asian champion recently, shot 598 in qualification and 104 in the final, topping the list in the first competition on June 27.
Bindra had a series of 100, 100, 99, 100, 100 and 99 in the qualification phase, and followed it up with an all-10 in the 10-shot final. He pipped Sergy Richter of Israel, who had shot 599 in qualification by 0.5 point.
However, in the second competition on June 28, Pierre Edmond Piasecki of France overwhelmed Bindra with a total of 705.2 as he followed up 599 with an astonishing 106.2 in the final. The World Cup gold medallist in the London pre-Olympic event in April, Piasecki shot a series of 10.9, 10.7, 10.4, 10.7, 10.6, 10.6, 10.6, 10.4, 10.6 and 10.7 in the final. Incidentally, the effort was 1.4 points better than the world record of 703.8, held by former Olympic champion Zhu Qinan of China since September last year.
Bindra shot 596 following a series of 100, 98, 100, 100, 98 and 100, and had an excellent final himself for a total of 105.3, as his shots ranged from 10.1 to 10.9. His total of 701.3 was beaten by a mile by the Frenchman, who had finished fifth with a score of 696.4 in the first competition.
Another Indian shooter bound for the London Games, Joydeep Karmakar, also competed in the meet in the men's 50-metre free rifle prone event. He shot 694.1 following a qualification score of 592 in the second competition to be placed fourth, while a better total of 695.6 after 594 in qualification could fetch him only the sixth place in the first competition.
Guy Starik of Israel won both the events, with scores of 701.5 and 697.2, following qualification scores of 598 and 594 respectively.
