Vijay Kumar won silver for India in his first outing in Olympics on Friday, adding the country's medal tally at the ongoing London Olympics to two.
The 26-year-old army serviceman from Himachal Pradesh hit the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol to clinch the Silver medal, which is second individual Silver in any Olympics in the last 100 years for India. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won silver in Men's Double Trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Kumar got the better of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and Christian Reitz of Germany. Leuris Pupo of Cuba found the target 34 times to clinch gold.
Kumar said that he was happy on winning a medal in his first Olympics appearance.
"It really means a lot, it is my highest achievement to win a medal in an Olympic Games," Kumar told reporters after winning the Silver.
"I have lots of medals but that Olympic medal was missing - now it is over," he added.
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated Vijay Kumar on winning the Olympic silver medal.
"I join the nation in congratulating shooter Vijay Kumar for winning the Olympic silver medal in the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event," said the PM in a statement.
Kumar's silver medal came three days after another Indian shooter Gagan Narang opened the country's medal account at the ongoing London Olympics 2012. Gagan got bronze medal in men's 10m air rifle on Monday.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
