Bindra misses Olympic
berth by a whisker

Ace rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra missed an Athens Olympic berth by a whisker after finishing fifth in the ISSF World championships in Atlanta, USA, on Thursday night.

In the final, he shot 102.7 -- with a series of 10.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.7, 10.2, 10.1, 10.7, 10.3, 10.0, and 10.3 to finish fifth, just 1.2 points behind gold medallist Jason Parker of the US.

The triumph gave Jason a quota position for a berth in the 2004 Games.

Earlier, Bindra had reached the final with a brilliant score of 595.

German shooter Eckhardt and Cai Yalin of China had already secured quota positions. Yalin, the World No. 1, finished eighth on Thursday.

The Indian ace will leave for Milan on Sunday where he will take part in the World Cup on May 31.

"I will strive very hard for a quota position at Milan," Bindra said in a statement.

After the Milan event there are four more World Cups in 2003, the World Championship and this year's Busan Asian Games, where Bindra has a fair chance to win a quota position for the Athens Olympics.

Earlier, Anjali M Bhagwat (nee Vedpathak) became the first woman to qualfy for the Athens Olympics, when she won the silver medal in the 10 metre Air Rifle event.

Bindra has been consistently notching up an average score of 594 plus this year. He shot 594 at the World Cup in Sydney, and 594 in Shanghai and now 595 in Atlanta.