Gagan Narang wins bronze medal

London, Jul 30: India's Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in 10m Air Rifle at the London Olympics 2012 here at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Monday.

Also read: Bindra out, Narang in final

Also read: Who is Narang?

This was India's first medal in this Olympics. It was third time lucky for the shooter from Hyderabad after he had missed out on medals in his previous two Games, (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008). This was also third straight shooting medal for India after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Silver, Athens 2004) and Abhinav Bindra (Gold, Beijing 2008). Overall, this was India's eighth individual medal in Games history.

The 29-year-old Narang won the bronze with a total score of 701.1. Romanian Alin George Moldoveanu took the gold with a score of 702.1. Italian Niccolo Campriani took silver (701.5).

The final had eight shooters in the fray. Each one had 10 shots. Narang's sequence in the final was 10.7, 9.7, 10.6, 10.7, 10.4, 10.6, 9.9, 9.5, 10.3 and 10.7 for a total of 103.1. He had 598 score in the qualification. It was 598 out of 600.

Gagan will be seen in action again on August 3, Friday when he takes part in 50m Rifle Prone. He is also part of 50m Rifle 3 Positions on August 6, Monday.

Earlier updates

Narang shot a score of 598 out of 600 to qualify for the final in third position. This was after his compatriot and another medal hope Abhinav Bindra had crashed out in the same even few minutes before.

The 29-year-old Narang was in great form earlier in the day and if he can repeat that he has a great chance of bringing India's first medal in London.

The Hyderabadi has set world record in shooting two times previously. In 2010, he won four gold medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Also he had won two silvers in the Guangzhou Asian Games 2010.

In 2006, he won four golds at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Here is the line-up for 10m Air Rifle Final

1. Niccolo Campriani (Italy)

2. Alin George Moldoveanu (Romania)

3. Gagan Narang (India)

4. Tao Wang (People's Republic of China)

5. Illia Charheika (Belarus)

6. Ole Magnus Bakken (Norway)

7. Peter Hellenbrand (Netherlands)

8. Pierre Edmond Piasecki (France)