Gagan books Olympic berth with gold at shooting World Cup

New Delhi, Mar 27 (UNI) Resuming from where he had left it in the Commonwealth Games, ace marksman Gagan Narang today became the first Indian to qualify for the Beijing Olympics after he won the gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event of the ISSF World Cup in Guangzhou, China.

Narang, who won four gold medals in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, shot a series of 99,100,100,98,100,100 to total 597 in qualifying and then scored 103.2 in the final for his total of 700.2 to win the gold and book a berth for Beijing.

Chinese Tianyou Liu scored 699.6 (597+102.6) to grab the silver while the bronze went to Russian Artem Khadjirekov at 699.1 (597+102.1).

Narang's compatriot Abhinav Bindra (595) finished ninth and failed to qualify for the final.

The Indian, fresh from the success in Melbourne, was tied at 597 with five other shooters before going into the final and there he came up with the best shot to clinch the issue.

Compatriot Abhinav Bindra shot a score of 595 in the qualfying with a series 99,100,99,100,100,97 and missed the finals on a count back to Are Hansen of Norway who also shot 595 but had a higher last series of 100 as compared to Abhina's 97.

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