India's only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, missed out on a medal by the narrowest of margins in the 10m air rifle final, finishing fourth in a tight shootout at the Olympic Shooting Centre with a score of 163.8.
The gold medal went to Nicolo Campriani (206.1) of Italy, Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish bagged silver with a score of 204.6, while Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia scored 184.2 to win bronze..
This is the last time Bindra will be seen in a shooting competition as he has announced his retirement after Rio and leaves the sport as India's most decorated shooter and premier Olympic sportsman.
It was an excruciatingly nerve-wracking final with the hall packed to capacity. Bindra walked in slightly awkwardly and took his place on Lane C. The announcer at the venue was quite vociferous but for Bindra and the rest of the shooters in the field, it was almost as if he didn't exist. Bindra was steady but unspectacular in his first series of six shots that included two scores of 9.7.
Once the field started to whittle down after the eighth shot, Bindra, the only previous gold medalist in this event among the eight competitors suddenly found his mongrel. He reeled off an impressive sequence of high tens as the arena started to throb with expectation. Each shot was met by a vociferous cheers from the Indians in the hall as even hardened journalists who've seen it all before started to entangle themselves in the moment. Bindra, impassively as always, continued to move up the field and was in medal contention as shooters started to drop off. Four fell by the wayside, leaving only four.
A 9.7 on his 15th shot and 10.2 on his 16th tied Bindra with Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine. The now or never moment was here, all that training all the toil all the effort down to one shot to be an Olympic medalist, what's more India's first medal at the Olympics. Bindra shot a 10, but his rival responded with a 10.5. The dream was over. Bindra walked back, measured and collected as ever, though a collective gasp of despair engulfed the arena. He would finish his career as an Olympic gold medalist but also as a man who came so near yet so far. An official walking past this writer exclaimed " We are having such bad luck, missing out by such small margins."
That in essence is the whole point of this brutal, unforgiving sport. Fine margins between joy and agony. Bindra is only 33 but walks into the sunset perhaps with a tinge of agony of what might have been in Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived as a self-proclaimed hobby shooter and almost clinched glory.
Qualifying round
In the qualifying round, Bindra had finished 7th with a score of 625.7 to make it to his third Olympic final. Gagan Narang's campaign ended with a score of 621.7 and a 23rd place finish. There were more than a few frayed nerves at the shooting arena with a strong Indian contingent made up mostly of journalists and officials swaying on a roller coaster ride. Bindra was his usual self, serenity personified but by faltering in the fourth and fifth series, he undid some of the good work from a solid start. When the final series began, with Bindra out of the top 10, his teammate Narang had already left himself with too high a mountain to climb so hopes rested entirely on Bindra.
The nervous faces of members of the shooting contingent told its own story with the results so far having been well below expectations. Bindra responded with a nerveless effort to score 105.2 and was to make the last eight on what will be his last day of competitive shooting. Abhinav reached his first final in Athens in 2004 as a 22 year old. He was to finish eighth in the Athens final, but four years later created history by winning Gold at the Beijing Olympics.
As the final few shooters finished, many nails were being chewed with a bit of churn towards the lower half of the leaderboard. Once confirmed the Indian contingent broke into infectious applause. Italian shooter Niccolo Campriani finished the qualification rounds with an Olympic record of 630.2.
Narang will compete in two more events in Rio - the 50m rifle and the 50m three-position. For Bindra, it was his final goodbye.