Bindra shoots gold in Grand Prix of France

Shooting ace Abhinav Bindra on Sunday bagged gold medal in 10 metre air rifle event in the first Grand Prix of France Air Rifle Competition in Fleury Les Aubrais, some 128kms from Paris.

Shooting ace Abhinav Bindra on Sunday bagged gold medal in 10 metre air rifle event in the first Grand Prix of France Air Rifle Competition in Fleury Les Aubrais, some 128kms from Paris.

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Bindra shot 596 in the qualification and 102.9 in the final to aggregate 698.9 and finished ahead of local hopes Valerian Sauveplane (698.3) and Etienne Germond (695.7).

The Beijing Olympic gold medallist had a sequence of 9.9 10.5 10.4 10.6 10.6 10.2 10.6 10.4 9.9 9.8 in the final.

Bindra, who was on Thursday issued an ultimatum by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to participate in the ongoing National Games in Ranchi, is assured of a place in the Indian squad for the first two World Cups, according to national coach Sunny Thomas.

The shooter was training in Munich prior to the competition in France and is expected to compete in the trials scheduled from March 1-10 in New Delhi during a camp for the shooters in the national squad.

Bindra created history by becoming the first Indian to win an individual gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.