Bindras rifle was tampered with: coach

From Rajeev K, DH News Service, Beijing:
Did someone tamper with Abhinav Bindras rifle just before the Indian started his gold medal round on Monday?
Bindra, who won the gold medal, certainly believes so. So do other Indian shooting officials. Bindra, who left for India on Wednesday, told a Mumbai-based newspaper that he felt his weapon was tampered with.

The shooter said he was surprised that his sight was not at the same level as it was during the qualification round. He became suspicious after he registered a very low score in the sighter series just before the final and had to make adjustments to get the rifle in order.

“He shot a 4.2 in the first sighter series and I was surprised by it,” national coach Sunny Thomas told Deccan Herald on Wednesday.

“He had shot 60 shots in the qualifying rounds and out of which, 56 were 10s and only four were nines. Unless someone had tampered with the rifle, it was impossible for him to shoot a 4.2,” he said.

“He then gave a click and things started to improve. Subsequently, he had to give 40 clicks to set it right. Unless someone has taken out the sight and put it back, it is not possible for such a thing to happen,” Thomas said.He suggested that it might have happened during the one-hour 15 minutes break between the qualification round and the final.

During the period, the weapon check has to be done.

Abhinav had gone to the toilet leaving his rifle in the room; there were other shooters, their coaches and Indian coach Laszlo Szucsak in that room. That was the only time he left his weapon alone between qualification and the final, Thomas said while praising Bindra’s presence of mind for coming out of the tight situation.

“I was really worried that something like Athens might happen again (Bindra finished seventh then due to an unstable surface at his firing station). But he had the presence of mind to set things right. He won the gold medal, so we decided not to make an issue out of it.”