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Olympics: Shooter Vijay Kumar wins silver medal for India
Clean Media Correspondent
London, August 03 (CMC) Army sharp shooter Vijay Kumar today fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today.
Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba's Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34.
The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each.
This is India's second medal in the ongoing quadrennial extravaganza after fellow marksman Gagan Narang's bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event on July 30. This was also the country's fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history.
The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens) , Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing) besides Narang.
Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target.
After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, a double gold medallist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, found the target four times in the second and third series, but missed it twice in the fourth.
He came back strongly by finding the target four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round after Pupo shot four to clinch the gold, Kumar seemed to relax a bit and missed three targets.
The bronze medal was won by Feng with a tally of 27.
Earlier in the afternoon, ace marksman Vijay Kumar lifted the Indian shooting team's spirit by qualifying for the final of the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today.
En route to his total score of 585, Kumar became the second shooter to break the previous Olympic record of 583 during the second stage of qualification.
Placed fourth in the list, Kumar, who had scored 293 in stage 1 of the qualification yesterday, shot a series of 98 97 97 in the second stage to take his total score to 585.
He shot a sequence of 99 96 98 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Pre-Games medal favourite Ronjan Sodhi had yesterday failed to qualify for the double trap event.
Russian Alexei Klimov created a new world record by shooting 592.
He scored a total of 592 after Stage 2, breaking the existing world record of 591 and Olympic record of 583, with 294 points in Stage 1 and a staggering 298 out of 300 in Stage 2.
In a disappointment for India, Joydeep Karmakar narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the 50m rifle prone event after setting an Olympic record in the qualifying stage while Vijay Kumar qualified for the final of the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.
In an event where 10m air rifle bronze-medallist Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the finals, Karmakar put his best foot forward to finish fourth with a tally of 699.1, which was 1.9 adrift of bronze medal winner's score of 701.0.
However, in the Rapid Fire event, en route to his total score of 585, fourth-placed Kumar became the second shooter to break the previous Olympic record of 583 during the second stage of qualification.
In Karmakar's event, after scoring 595 out of 600 before qualifying for the finals through a shoot-off with eight others, who were all tied in fourth place, the 32-year-old Kolkata lad shot consistently well in the finals, but still finished outside the medal bracket.
The one point difference that Karmakar conceded to the eventual bronze medallist, Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia, proved to be decisive in the battle for the third place.
Karmakar shot sequence of 10.1, 10.6, 10.7, 10.5, 10.7, 10.2, 10.0, 10.2, 10.7, 10.4 for a total of 104.1, while Debevec fired a 105.0, a difference of less than one.
The gold medal went to Sergei Martynov of Belarus, who created a new world record of 705.5 and the silver was picked by Belgian Lionel Cox (701.2).
Earlier today, Gagan Narang failed to replicate the form that fetched him the 10m air rifle bronze as he crashed out of the 50m rifle prone event in the qualifying stage.
Narang, who just four days ago became the India's first medal winner at the London Games, could fire only 593 out of 600 to finish a shocking 18th in a field of 50 competitors and lost a great chance of another podium finish.
Karmakar did not have an ideal start as he managed to fire 99 and 98 in the first two rounds. He, however, shot a 100 in the third followed by another 98 in the fourth series at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
But two 100s in the last two rounds helped him finish with 595 total points and at tied fourth with eight other shooters.
At the shoot-off, he scored 51.6 to finish at the seventh spot and thereby earned a berth in the eight-man final.
The leader of the qualifying stage, Martynov scored 600 out of 600 to equal both World as well as Olympics record.
Narang started with a 98 in the first series but came back strongly by getting two perfect 10s for consecutive 100s in the second and third rounds and looked all set to make the cut.
However, he misfired and logged a poor 98 and 97 in the next two rounds, which dashed his chances of making the medal round.
In spite of hitting a 100 in the sixth and in his last round, Narang could finish only behind 17 other shooters in the qualifiers.
Later in the day, placed fourth in the list, Kumar, who had scored 293 in stage 1 of the qualification yesterday, shot a series of 98, 97, 97 in the second stage to take his total score to 585.
He shot a sequence of 99, 96, 98.
Olympics: Shooter Vijay Kumar wins silver medal for India
London, August 03 (CMC) Army sharp shooter Vijay Kumar today fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today.
Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba's Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34.
The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each.
This is India's second medal in the ongoing quadrennial extravaganza after fellow marksman Gagan Narang's bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event on July 30. This was also the country's fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history.
The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens) , Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing) besides Narang.
Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target.
After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, a double gold medallist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, found the target four times in the second and third series, but missed it twice in the fourth.
He came back strongly by finding the target four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round after Pupo shot four to clinch the gold, Kumar seemed to relax a bit and missed three targets.
The bronze medal was won by Feng with a tally of 27.
Earlier in the afternoon, ace marksman Vijay Kumar lifted the Indian shooting team's spirit by qualifying for the final of the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today.
En route to his total score of 585, Kumar became the second shooter to break the previous Olympic record of 583 during the second stage of qualification.
Placed fourth in the list, Kumar, who had scored 293 in stage 1 of the qualification yesterday, shot a series of 98 97 97 in the second stage to take his total score to 585.
He shot a sequence of 99 96 98 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Pre-Games medal favourite Ronjan Sodhi had yesterday failed to qualify for the double trap event.
Russian Alexei Klimov created a new world record by shooting 592.
He scored a total of 592 after Stage 2, breaking the existing world record of 591 and Olympic record of 583, with 294 points in Stage 1 and a staggering 298 out of 300 in Stage 2.
In a disappointment for India, Joydeep Karmakar narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the 50m rifle prone event after setting an Olympic record in the qualifying stage while Vijay Kumar qualified for the final of the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.
In an event where 10m air rifle bronze-medallist Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the finals, Karmakar put his best foot forward to finish fourth with a tally of 699.1, which was 1.9 adrift of bronze medal winner's score of 701.0.
However, in the Rapid Fire event, en route to his total score of 585, fourth-placed Kumar became the second shooter to break the previous Olympic record of 583 during the second stage of qualification.
In Karmakar's event, after scoring 595 out of 600 before qualifying for the finals through a shoot-off with eight others, who were all tied in fourth place, the 32-year-old Kolkata lad shot consistently well in the finals, but still finished outside the medal bracket.
The one point difference that Karmakar conceded to the eventual bronze medallist, Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia, proved to be decisive in the battle for the third place.
Karmakar shot sequence of 10.1, 10.6, 10.7, 10.5, 10.7, 10.2, 10.0, 10.2, 10.7, 10.4 for a total of 104.1, while Debevec fired a 105.0, a difference of less than one.
The gold medal went to Sergei Martynov of Belarus, who created a new world record of 705.5 and the silver was picked by Belgian Lionel Cox (701.2).
Earlier today, Gagan Narang failed to replicate the form that fetched him the 10m air rifle bronze as he crashed out of the 50m rifle prone event in the qualifying stage.
Narang, who just four days ago became the India's first medal winner at the London Games, could fire only 593 out of 600 to finish a shocking 18th in a field of 50 competitors and lost a great chance of another podium finish.
Karmakar did not have an ideal start as he managed to fire 99 and 98 in the first two rounds. He, however, shot a 100 in the third followed by another 98 in the fourth series at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
But two 100s in the last two rounds helped him finish with 595 total points and at tied fourth with eight other shooters.
At the shoot-off, he scored 51.6 to finish at the seventh spot and thereby earned a berth in the eight-man final.
The leader of the qualifying stage, Martynov scored 600 out of 600 to equal both World as well as Olympics record.
Narang started with a 98 in the first series but came back strongly by getting two perfect 10s for consecutive 100s in the second and third rounds and looked all set to make the cut.
However, he misfired and logged a poor 98 and 97 in the next two rounds, which dashed his chances of making the medal round.
In spite of hitting a 100 in the sixth and in his last round, Narang could finish only behind 17 other shooters in the qualifiers.
Later in the day, placed fourth in the list, Kumar, who had scored 293 in stage 1 of the qualification yesterday, shot a series of 98, 97, 97 in the second stage to take his total score to 585.
He shot a sequence of 99, 96, 98.
