Abhinav Bindra qualifies for 2012 Olympics

Beijing Olympics gold-medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra Saturday gave India its eighth quota place for the 2012 London Olympics with an eighth-place finish in the ISSF World Cup in Munich.

The seven other Indian shooters to win quota places were: Gagan Narang (rifle), Hari Om Singh (prone) Ronjan Sodhi (double trap), Sanjeev Rajput (three position), Vijay Kumar, Annu Raj Singh and Rahi Sarnobat (all pistol).

This was Bindra's last chance to win a quota place for the country and the 10-metre air rifle champion trained for two weeks with his coach Gaby Buhlman before reaching Munich.

Bindra shot a qualification score of 596 points, which tied him with eight others, but made it to the finals with 52.6 points in the shoot-off.

He started the final at seventh place, but with two disappointing shots of 9.3 and 9.8 points, he came hurtling down to the eighth place. Competing with Are Hansen and Peter Hellenbrand, he scored a total of 100.7 points in the final and finished with a total score of 696.7 points (596+100.7).

He was awarded an Olympic Quota Place, securing a qualification spot for India at the next 2012 Olympic Games since the others in the field had already booked their berth for London.

"It has been a long way through," said Bindra.

“I am happy that I finally reached this Olympic Quota Place to participate in the 2012Games."

"I will have to go through trials to make it to the Olympic team, I believe. Now that I have a Quota, life seems easier."

Bindra, 28, is currently ranked 31 in the ISSF world ranking for this event. After victory at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he had never made it to an ISSF final again, finishing in 25th place at the 2010 ISSF World Championship in Munich.