London: Ace marksman Gagan Narang today opened India's account in the London Olympic Games by clinching the bronze medal in the men's 10m air rifle event here.
Narang shot 103.1 in a gripping ten-shot finals for an aggregate of 701.1 after scoring 598 in the qualifying round in which also he stood third.
The gold was won by Romania's Moldoveanu Alin George who tallied 702.1, that included 103.1 in the final, to upset world number 1 Niccolo Campriani of Italy who stood second with 701.5 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
After a good start when he shot 10.7, Narang was off target with his second shot that fetched him 9.7. But he gathered his wits and steadied his aim to collect 10.6 10.7 10.4 and 10.6 in the following four shots to at one stage remain on course for bagging even a silver.
However, he slipped a bit and had to fight for the bronze medal with China's Wang Tao who finished fourth with 700.4.
After returning poor scores of 9.9 and 9.5 in the seventh and eighth attempts, Narang pulled up his socks to seal the bronze with impressive scores of 10.3 and 10.7.
Narang's compatriot and defending champion Abhinav Bindra had, however, suffered a shocking exit with his dismal show in the preliminaries in which he stood 16th out of 47 contestants with a score of 594 out of 600.
Romania's Alin Moldoveanu won the Olympic gold medal in the men's shooting 10m air rifle on Monday.
Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra, who Monday failed to defend the gold medal he won in Beijing four years ago, said luck deserted him during the qualification round of the 10 metres air rifle event at the 2012 London Games here Monday.
Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, failed to qualify as he shot 594 to finish 16th out of 47 contestants while his compatriot Gagan Narang qualified for the final round finishing third with 598 points.
"Time was running out and I had to take some risks. Needed a little luck for some shots and I didn't get it. I am disappointed, but love the sport, love shooting so am sure I'll continue. I think I did a reasonable job. I could have retired on a high after the Bejing gold but that would have been the easy way out," Bindra told reporters at the Royal Artillery Barracks here.
"I am glad I had the courage to come back and try again even though I have failed. I will still go away from London Olympics having learnt a lot," said the former World Champion.
Bindra hoped his compatriot Narang will bag an Olympic medal. Narang fell two short of his world record score of 600. In fact, Narang is the only shooter to have shot a possible 600 twice.
