Asian Championship: Bindra wins gold beating close rival Zhu

Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra of India bagged his maiden Asian Shooting Championship gold beating his close rival China’s Zhu Qinan by a margin of 0.3 points in the 10-metre air rifle event in Doha Friday.

For the 29-year-old Bindra, a 2006 world champion, the gold in the Qatari capital was the first in any Asian-level competition.

Bindra had a great qualifying round, where he shot 597 out of 600 following a series of 100, 99, 100, 98, 100, 100. Going into the final round, Bindra was one point behind the Chinese pair of Zhu, Asian Games champion, and Wang Tao who had 598 each.

In the final, Bindra proved his class, shooting 104.1 while Zhu, an Athens Olympics gold medallist, got 102.8. Bindra finished with a total of 701.1 while Zhu had 700.8.

Bindra recorded a great series of 10.7, 10.8, 10.6, 10.3, 9.9, 10.3, 10.2, 10.3, 10.5 and 10.5 in the 10-shot final.

Gagan Narang, who along with Bindra, holds the Olympic quota, finished fourth with a score of 595 in the qualifying and 103.2 in the final.

Another Indian in fray, Satyendra Singh shot 582 to be placed 30th in a field of 51 and it helped the team to bag the silver medal, one point ahead of Mongolia and South Korea. China shot a world record of 1,793, 19 points ahead of India, to snatch the gold.