London 2012: President congratulates Vijay for silver at Olympics

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday congratulated Indian shooter Vijay Kumar for winning a silver medal in the 25m rapid fire pistol event of the Olympic Games in London.

"By getting the second medal at the Olympics, Kumar has done the country proud," a Rashtrapati Bhawan official quoted Mukherjee as saying referring to the bronze medal that Gagan Narang had won in the 10m sir rifle event. Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba`s Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34. The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each. This was the country`s fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history. The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens), Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing) besides Narang. PTI