India up four places to 144th in FIFA rankings

India continued its upward movement in the FIFA charts besides managing to break into the top 20 among Asian countries in the latest rankings.

India gained four places from their October ratings and are now ranked 144 having tallied 174 points. They are also ranked 20th in Asia despite the national team not having played a single match in this past month.

European champions Spain continue to lead the FIFA charts while Germany moved up one spot to second eclipsing Italy, who slipped to third.

Five-time world champions Brazil, too, lost a place and are down to fifth behind the Netherlands.
Argentina follow Brazil while Croatia, Russia and Czech republic fill the slots from seventh to ninth.

Portugal remain static at 10th position and share it with England, who gained four places.

Anbu.

Gagan Narang shoots to world record, wins world cup

Gagan Narang

Putting behind the disappointment of the Olympic Games, shooter Gagan Narang won the gold in the men's 10 metre air rifle event with a world record score in the World Cup Finals in Bangkok Wednesday morning.

In a strong field dominated by Beijing Games medallists Chinese Zhu Qinan and Finn Henn Hakkinen, Narang shot a perfect 600 in the qualifying stage and 103.5 in the final for a world record score of 703.5.

En route to the gold, Narang broke the record of Austrian Farnik Thomas set in 2006 World Cup Final in Granada, Spain.

American Matthew Emmons bagged the silver with 702.5 (qualifying 598, final 104.5) and the bronze went to Zhu, who shot 702.3 (qualifying 599, final 103.3).

The 25-year-old Indian qualified for the event after he won a bronze in the World Cup in China earlier this year. He almost made it to the final round at the Beijing Games but eventually lost out on a count-back.

Qinan, a gold medallist in the Athens Olympics, won the silver in Beijing while Hakkinen bagged the bronze.

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Anbu.