Cool, consistent Vijay Kumar fires his way to a silver

The 26-year-old Subedar with the Gorkha regiment is known to control the number of times he blinks his eyes, not to mention his breathing pattern. Vijay Kumar may not be the most recognised faces in Indian shooting, but as his compatriots performing with him will tell you, he is an unstoppable force — cool, consistent, and after today, an Olympic silver medal winner.

As quiet in glory in the 25 m rapid fire pistol event as he was in the run-up to it, all Kumar said after his impressive performance was: "We need to control our nervous system."

Nerves must have come into play when, entering the four-second rapid fire finals on Friday, he ranked fourth. However, then the discipline set in, and Kumar started with brilliant a 5 on 5 target, and kept steady, notching 30 even as the field thinned down in the eliminations. Finally, he was just four shots behind Cuban Leurius Pupo.

In the finals, Pupo shot three successive turns of 5 on 5s. Again, Kumar seemed unmoved, raising his right shoulder to the precise level of firing (he needs that adjustment since he's shorter than the target line) and dropping his left shoulder for balance. Occasionally, he rubbed his palms down his track pants, to wipe off the sweat. The score finally stood at a series of 5, 4, 4,3 (for the first mandatory 20 shots), followed by three 4s — enough to clinch India a historic silver in pistol. Pupo took the gold.

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