With new gun,Abhinav Bindra looks to get battle ready

Despite the gold,there are a few things that are bothering the air rifle ace.

Nilesh Rane of the Capapie sports equipment company was busy taking Abhinav Bindra8217;s measurements minutes after the finals got over. Bindra,who had just won the 10m air rifle gold on the last day of the nationals,placed his distinct black and white shooting suit in the case and stood still in his lycra suit.

Rane went about his job with his measuring tape. Ever the perfectonist,Bindra felt his Monard suit was not fitting him well and so a new one had been commissioned. Rane and his men were with the champion only for a couple of minutes,but it was indication enough that the shooter,who is known to go great lengths to get everything right,was ready to up his game ahead of what will be a crucial 2014.

The next year will be a big year for the Indian shooters. Apart from the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games,there will also be the sport8217;s biggest competition,the World Championships,scheduled to be held in Granada,Spain from September 6 to 20. This is where the first set of Olympic quotas will be disbursed.

So Bindra knows the task ahead of him. Results are alright. I have a lot of work to do. People say it gets easier with age,it certainly doesn8217;t,I know it. Everyday is a big hard fight for me. But I am willing to suffer and struggle. I enjoy the game,I enjoy shooting that8217;s why I still do it. I will continue to strive to be the best I can be,I8217;ll have a lot of challenges along the way. Lets see where I can go, the 31-year-old said after bagging the gold with a final score of 208.9 points,which was a good 4.5 points ahead of second-placed Army shooter Chavanke Ashok. Navy8217;s Sanjeev Rajput finished third with a total of 182.8 points.

Despite the gold,there are a few things that are bothering the air rifle ace. His chronic back problem is giving him trouble and also is the fact that he is on the lookout for a new rifle. While he chose not to delve on the nature of his injury 8211; he only said he was struggling with the back he explained his need to acquire a new gun.

With the new rules,the rifle makes a big difference,because everything is shot in decimals and the ammunition to match up makes a huge difference. For example if a rifle has a certain dispersion then with each shot you are losing a couple of tenths. And if you lose even one tenth every shot because of the rifle then in 60 shots how many points do you lose? Six points. That8217;s a huge amount of points. So the quality of the rifle makes a huge difference in these rules8230; I don8217;t have a perfect rifle and I hope to get one before the coming season so that at least may be I can jump to 623 from 622 and 624 and then it makes a difference in big competition. Because at 622 I don8217;t make the final.

Meanwhile,London Games bronze medallist Gagan Narang failed to make the cut for the finals after shooting a total of 616.2 to finish 12th in the classification.

Pemba wins centre fire

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In other results on Tuesday,Army8217;s Pemba Tamang shot 583,four ahead of team mate Vijay Kumar to win the center fire pistol event while Navy8217;s Harpreet Singh beat Omkar Singh in the tie-shoot to win the bronze medal. Air Force8217;s Ravi Kumar bagged the Champion of the Champions title in air rifle by defeating Olympian,Navy8217;s Sanjeev Rajput.