Abhinav Bindra bags bronze

India's top rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra set a new world junior record on his way to a bronze medal-winning performance at the World Cup shooting championship in Munich.

Bindra shot a world record 597 out of 600 on Sunday to qualify for the final, where he tallied 103.5 in the 10-shot round for an aggregate of 700.5.

The gold in the event was won by Leif Steinar of Norway, with a score of 701.5 (598 + 103.5), while Jian Qiu of China took the silver at the same aggregate (597 + 104.5) but with a lower score in the preliminary round.

The brilliant performance by Bindra, who had shot a world- record equalling 596 in last year, follows his fine showing at the World Cup in Milan last week where he finished sixth with an aggregate of 696.2.

Anjali Vedpathak too turned up with an impressive perform- ance, finishing fifth in the women's Air rifle event.

Anjali followed her 397 with a 110.9 in the final for an aggregate of 497.9, four points behind the gold medal-winning effort of 501.9 by Katerina Beranova of Czech Republic. Gaby Buehlmann of Switzerland won the silver at 499.7 while Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany took the bronze at 499.3.

Anuja Tere and Suma Shirur were placed joint 18th with scores of 394 in the same event.

In the women's Air Pistol event, Shweta Chaudhry finished joint 36th with 375 points while Shilpi Singh and Sonia Rana had identical scores of 370 for the joint 48th spot.