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New Delhi: The impressive showing in the London Olympics has given a huge boost to the world rankings of two Indian shooters — Vijay Kumar and Joydeep Karmakar.
According to the latest International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) rankings, pistol shooter Vijay Kumar, a silver medallist in the 25-metre rapid fire event, is now world No. 2. It is a big jump for Vijay, as he was languishing at the 16th place before the start of the Olympics.
While Vijay Kumar has a rating of 2871 points, Cuban shooter Leuris Pupo, who beat the Indian for the gold medal, is placed first with 3690 points to his credit.
Also to make a giant leap in the ranking list was Calcutta based rifleman Joydeep Karmakar, who finished fourth in 50-metre prone.
Karmakar is now behind Sergei Martynov of Belarus, Lionel Cox (Belgium) and Raimond Debevec (Slovakia). Karmakar was world No. 39 before the Olympics.
“The fourth place has come as a pleasant surprise to me,” admitted Karmakar. “My next goal is to keep up the good work,” he said.
Martynov, however, is far ahead of the pack. While the Belarusian star has 5640 points, Cox, Debevec and Karmakar have less than 3000.
There is no change of positions in the first 18 places in the 10-metre air rifle event. While Gagan Narang, who was fourth on the eve of the Olympics, remained at the same place despite winning the bronze medal, former Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra stayed 17th.
Things, however, have not gone well for two other big names — Ronjan Sodhi and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Ranked 10th before the Olympics, Sodhi is now placed at the 11th.
In the same event, Rathoreis placed 25th.
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