London: Army marksman Vijay Kumar won a silver medal for India in the men’s 25 metre rapid fire event at the 2012 London Olympics here on Friday. The gold went to Cuban Leuris Pupo while Chinese Feng Ding got the bronze.

Pupo kept his cool to win Cuba’s first gold. Pupo scored 34 to edge out India’s Vijay Kumar, who took silver with 30 after hitting just 2 from the last 5 sohots. China’s Ding Feng won bronze after being edged out by Kumar by one point in the final elimination round.

Russia’s Alexei Klimov who set a new world record of 592 in qualifying stages, struggled in the final round after two low-scoring rounds early on he eventually finished fourth and was out of the medal contention.

Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target. After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, found the target four times in the second and third round, but missed it twice in the fourth.

He fought back well and shot four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round, with the hope of gold gone and already assured of the medal, Kumar missed three targets.

The Chief of Army Staff, General Vikram Singh congratulated Vijaya Kumar for winning the silver medal in the 25m rapid fire pistol event. “It is the result of his untiring effort, dedication and will to win which are the hallmarks of the Indian Army.”