rio de janeiro somebody had to come fourth it was my turn today abhinav bindra stood there stoically eyes clouded struggling to hold back bitter tears i am okay i would have loved to end my career with a medal but i did my best i am ok he said and walked away briskly never to come back to an olympic shooting range with an air rifle on his shouldersit was cruel and gutwrenching to see this man come so close and yet leave emptyhanded in fact he had no business to be here in the first place he had battled severe pain due to wear and tear of the muscles and ligaments of his hand and a dodgy back for years he should have said goodbye and joined his family business or may be just chilled but the lure of the rifle in hand and the target ahead seduced him backbindra had said during the asian games 2014 that he was now only a hobby shooter i am through with active international competitions but somewhere deep down he knew it was not over yetbeijing and that magical gold happened when he was still very young and physically in a better shape he was in the zone london was close but not good enough there had to be a closure so the hobby shooter returned qualified for rio one of the first indians to win the slot and then retreated into his shellfor that is where he is most comfortable where he plays with his body and mind together his rifle becoming a part of him like a soul matenow he is done with iton monday ironically it was the 13th shot in the 10m air rifle final that brought him down lucky for some not for him he started with average scores of 10 97 102 97 101and then picked up with an amazing string of 104 107 104 108 107 and 107 and jumped from the seventh spot to no 2 the medal was tantalizingly close then came a 101 and that 97 on his 13th shothe had let go of a lead of 08 points over italian niccolo campriani who finally won the gold a 105 kept him alive but the next one a 99 got him into a playoff with sehiy kulish of ukraine a 10 was not good enough he took a deep breath slowly turned back and raised his right hand and waved at his supporters in the stands it was time to goearlier in the morning when the qualification began he was a bit tentative and hovered around the 10th spot midway through the process then he picked up and by the fourth series he was in top three as his country mate gagan narang started to slipbindra stayed in top 8 for a while but slipped after four shots in the sixth and final series he was 12th and struggling he asked his coach for some gel to moisten his eyes