Published on 24 Jul 2006
The third time is a charm
Sara John
For the 23-year-old Abhinav Bindra, of India, this third time was a charm. In what was his third try at the title, Bindra was able to walk away the World Champion in men’s air rifle today. Alin George Moldoveanu, of Romania, came in second, while China’s Qinan Zhu took third.
Bindra entered the final in a three-way tie for first place with a 597 qualifying score. He went on to shoot a 102.1, and beat the next closest finalist by seven-tenths of a point. This is Bindra’s first international win, although he had won the bronze medal at the Munich World Cup in 2003 and 2001. “I wasn’t sure where I was sitting, I was just trying to get a good shot off,” Bindra said of his last few 10’s. “I feel really good about this match. It was a great fight till the end. Today was just my day.”
Moldoveanu took second in this event after shooting a 101.3 in the final and ending with a 698.3. This is Moldoveanu’s third silver medal in international competition in the last two years, but he isn’t disheartened. “I don’t feel unlucky,” Moldoveanu said. “I just won second place.”
The 2004 Olympic gold medalist in this event, Qinan Zhu, went into the final in seventh place with a 595, but walked away with the bronze medal after shooting a final score of 102.9. Qualifying leader and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Jozef Gonci, of Slovakia, fell to fourth with his 100.8 final.
Country quota winners include India’s Bindra; Belarus’ Vitali Bubnovich, who took fifth; sixth-place finisher Konstantin Prikhodtchenko, of Russia; China’s Jie Li, who wound up in eighth, and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Lazeykin, who just missed the final cut-off and was placed ninth. Christian Planer, of Austria, rounded out the finalists in seventh, but already won his country a quota at the World Cup Brazil.