Did a broken gun sight seal Abhinav Bindra’s fate before finals?

Rio de Janeiro, August 9: A million hopes on the line and the gods decided to look the other way. The wind was blowing right, the issue about the light was sorted and our man was all set to go win that coveted medal, when the table on which India’s ace marksman’s gun sight was resting gave away.

Abhinav Bindra, had just placed his gun sight on the table and it fell breaking the gun sight and leaving him little time to assemble his gun with a spare one that he had used during practice while in India as reported in the Hindustan Times

The precious gun sight was particularly crafted to aid him in the different light conditions that existed at the Rio environs. Abhinav Bindra had even visited Rio earlier in the year to study the precise nuances of the venue for the Olympic 10m air rifle final.

The unfortunate turn of events must have upped the ante for this young man who finished fourth after he was unable to win the tiebreak (a single shot to decide between two shooters tied at the same score) against Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine.

Kulish went on to claim silver and Italy’s Niccolo Campriani took home the gold medal.

Earlier, Bindra had pulled off a spectacular last five shots to claw his way into the final eight of the 10m air rifle final at the Rio Olympics. His next series of 10 shots were the worst he shot in qualifying today (102.1) and suddenly he was slipping down to tenth spot over all and just outside the qualifying cut off of the top-eight.

It’s then that this man’s true class came through. The maximum a shooter can score in a single shot is 10.9. Bindra shot four 10.8s in his last five shots. It was those that ensured he qualified in seventh place with a total score of 625.7.

This was one of the toughest fields in 10m air rifle. The guy who was the defending gold medalist from London, Alin George Moldoveanu finished 19th in qualifying while India’s bronze medallist from the previous edition, Gagan Narang, placed 23. The current world champion, 20-year-old Haoran Yang from China, finished 31 in qualifying.

Sheer hard work and meditative toil proved lucky for Bindra in Beijing where the indian shooter won India’s first individual gold medal in the men’s 10 m air rifle shooting event. But this episode marked the second time he has been unlucky.

At Athens, the floor under his particular spot was dodgy. In a sport that is decided by millimeters, it proved to be his undoing. Bindra told the Hindustan times that at Athens he was shooting the best he ever had.

In Rio, the table gave away but not one to complain, the ace shooter took it in his stride and gave the round his all. He came agonisingly close to winning but lost by a margin of 0.5 in the shoot.