Abhinav Bindra ended his shooting career with his first Asian Games individual medal, a bronze, and also inspired the 10 metre air rifle team to another bronze in the 17th Asian Games at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range here Tuesday.
The 2008 Olympic champion Bindra, who Monday tweeted that Tuesday will be his last day as a professional, recorded a final score of 187.1 to take the third position as China finished one-two with Haoran Yang (209.6) clinching the gold medal and Yifel Cao (208.9) taking the silver.
Bindra looked like finishing fourth till his penultimate round but Iran's Pourya Norouziyan, who needed a 9.9 to ensure his progress after the 31-year-old Indian shot 10.5, scored a poor 9.6 to slip to the fourth spot and handed Bindra a medal. Bindra scored 10.6 and 10.7 in his final two shots but it was not enough to stop the rampaging Chinese duo.
Earlier in the day, Bindra had also led India to the bronze medal in the 10 metre air rifle men's team event. Bindra's individual bronze medal was India's eighth medal in the Incheon Games and sixth from the shooting range. Bindra's bronze also marks the end of an illustrious career with an elusive Asiad individual medal.
"There is no question of relief. I did well. I won a medal. Relief is not the emotion at the moment. I am just happy," said Bindra.
Earlier, Bindra spearheaded the men's team to win the bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event. The Indian team comprising Bindra (625.4-47x), Ravi Kumar (618.9-43x) and Sanjeev Rajput (618.7-45x) shot a total of 1,863-135x to claim third position. Ravi (20th) and Rajput (21st) failed to reach the final.
The gold went to the Chinese team of Yifel Cao (630.7-54x), Haoran Yang (629.2-54x) and Tianyou Liu (626.5-50x) with an accumulated score of 1,886.4-158x.
South Korea grabbed the silver after the trio of Sangdo Kim (626.1-48x), Hyeonjun Kim (622.3-44x) and Jinseop Han (619.2-44x) shot a total of 1,867.6-136x.
The bronze medal was India's seventh medal in the Incheon Games and fifth from the shooting range.
But there was disappointment for India in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event and women's trap.
Harpreet Singh finished seventh as Gurpreet Singh and Pemba Tamang failed to impress in the men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol qualification stage 1. Harpreet scored 290-8x with scores of 98, 99 and 93 in three shots, respectively. Gurpreet, with 284-6x, took 14th position and Tamang was 19th with a score of 277-5x.
Stage 1 was topped by China's Yuehong Li, who scored 295-19x. Stage 2 of the qualification and the final will take place Wednesday.
In women's trap, the team of Shreyasi Singh, Seema Tomar and Shagun Chowdhary finished eighth. India had a combined total of 188 and finished far behind Kazkahstan, who took gold with a score of 203. China took silver (199) while North Korea (198) settled for bronze.
Shreyasi was the top performer for India in the final but failed to get the required support from her compatriots Seema and Shagun.
Shagun was especially poor with an individual combined score of 59 after three rounds while Seema shot 63 with Shreyasi (66) scoring three more points. Anastassiya Davydova was the top individual scorer in the finals, notching 71 points.
