India Wins The First Medal at London Olynpics 2012 on Day Three

Gagan Narang

 Finally India got on its way out with Gagan Narang winning first medal for India in London Olympics 2012 in 10 m. Air Rifle Shooting event. Gagan Narang who was competing in his third Olympics successfully aimed at bronze medal with a score of 701.1 points. The Gold medal in this very event was taken by the Romanian Shooter with 702.3 points and the event favorite Campriani had to settle for a well fought Silver medal scoring 701.6. Gagan had scored 598 out of 600 possible points in the qualification round before the finals and was placed in third place with two shooters leading him with a score of 599 each. This qualification score difference proved vital difference in deciding the color of the medal as there was very little difference in the final scores and Gagan was joint highest scorer of final round.

Abhinav Bindra Shooting

 However the biggest disappointment(surprise or upset) of the day for India was Abhinav Bindra's below-power performance; as the former Olympics Gold medalist from Beijing failed in making it into the top eight shooters in 10 m. Air Rifle shooting event. Bindra could only score 596 points out of possible 600 points and thus was out of final round where only top 8 got chance. 

 Indian contingent of 83 participants had so far for first three days given some mixed performances. Indian women re-curve archery team had already lost to Denmark's team and male re-curve also lost their place to Japanese team.

 We also lost our Hockey opener against Dutch team in keenly contested match with Indian forwards committing far-too many mistakes and letting clear chances go begging.


 The much discussed boxer Sangwan lost out to Brazilian Boxer in a controversial and closely fought bought with score line reading 15-14 against Sangwan. The IOA even decided to appeal against the judges for their improper scoring tactics that hampered Indian boxer's result pretty badly.   

Sayna as expected made it through to the knock-out round with a straight set win over world number 55 ranked Tan.

 One can hope that the Bronze medal on day third will encourage Indian participants and the overall performance improve in upcoming days.