Abhinav Bindra finishes fifth

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. As the season hots up, the competitions become tough. Air rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra had a taste of the intensity of the fight in the Olympic event on the first two days of the Baltic Cup in Denmark, as he finished fifth on the second day and joint 19th on the first day.

The 18-year-old Abhinav, the only Indian in a field of 49 was forced to grapple with his form, especially on the first day of the three-day meet, in Aarhus, Jutland. He sneaked into the eight-member final with a 590, pipping Wily Ahlquist of Sweden with a 98 last shot to the latter's 97, in the second competition.

Abhinav had scores of 98, 98, 99, 99, 98, 98 in the preliminary phase, and shot a brilliant series in the final - 10.3, 10.6, 9.9, 10.4, 10.0, 10.4, 10.4, 10.3, 10.5 and 10.6 - for a total of 103.4, the best among the finalists.

With a cumulative figure of 693.4, Abhinav was able to finish ahead of C. Sannvoll of Norway (693.1), Marcus Akerholm of Sweden (692.9) and P. Danielsson of Sweden (690.7) who had shot one to three points above him before the final. It was a good augury before the final day's competition scheduled for Saturday.

The gold went to L. S. Rolland of Norway who followed a 596 with a 102.6 in the final, while Michal Zaremba of Poland took the silver ahead of Michael Jensen of Denmark, with a 10.3 in the shoot-out to the latter's 10.0, after the two had tied with a total of 695.3. R. Kraskowski of Poland finished fourth with a 694.8, as he was aided by a cushion of 595 in the preliminary phase.

Even in the first competition, it was L. S. Rolland who took the gold with a 699.8 as he followed a 596 with a 103.8 in the final. Michael Jensen (697.6) and Marcus Akerholm (696.5) took the silver and bronze respectively. Willy Ahlquist (694.6), R. Kraskowski (693.3), C. Sannvoll (691.7), G. M. Rolland of Norway (690.9) and Lars Pettersson of Sweden (687.4) finished fourth to eighth.

It was a below-par fare from Abhinav as he had a series of 97, 98, 96, 96, 99, 98 for a total of 584, which saw him miss the final by four points. He was joint 19th with M. Johansson, Anders Jonsson and Vidar Strom of Sweden apart from Przemyslaw Bozek of Poland.

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