Gagan wins World Cup bronze

Indian shooting star Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the mens 10 meter air rifle event of the first ISSF World Cup of the year in Chongwon,Korea on Friday. Narang fired an aggregate of 696.7,which included a score of 594/600 in the qualification. He entered the finals as the eighth and last shooter but made up the difference by shooting scores of 102.7 to finish on the podium.

Both gold and silver medals were clinched by China with Zho Qinan and Cao Yifei scoring 700.3 (597+103.3) and 698.6 (595+103.6) respectively. Another Indian in the fray,Sanjeev Rajput also reached the finals at fifth place with a score of 595 but was relegated to seventh place with a poor final round of 100.4. His compatriot PT Raghunath failed to qualify for the finals after shooting only 591.

As many as 38 Indian rifle and pistol shooters are competing in the April 9-15 event. They will then travel to Beijing for the second leg of the 2009 World Cup series from April 17-23. Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and Anjali Bhagwat have given the event a miss.