Rathore among world's top 3

Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is ranked among the top three double trap shooters in the world following his gold medal finish in the ISSF World Cup in Cairo, Egypt.

The Indian army marksman, who only recently regained form with his new Perazzi DB gun that was lost subsequently, jumped four places up from his previous seventh spot in the latest rankings.

Rathore is now running from pillar to post in a bid to locate the gun and also get a replacement without which his prospects in next month's World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, would be in jeopardy.

The shooter will also miss the next World Cup in Germany beginning June 6.

Rathore, with rating points 1817, is placed behind leader Hakan Dahlby of Sweden (2728) and Russia's Mosin Vasiliy (1934), who gained one place.

The Indian is followed by Binyuan Hu of China (1569), who maintained his fourth rank, and Vitaly Fokeev (1445) of Russia, who slipped from second place.

Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who also secured an Olympic berth in Cairo, catapulted to second place from ninth, with 1457 points.

Another Indian ace, Gagan Narang, who ruled the ranking charts after the first World Cup of the season in China, is now sitting pretty in second position in the men's 10 metre air rifle rankings. Abhinav Bindra is placed 24th.

A string of low finishes cost Samresh Jung 16 places and he slipped to 43rd in 50 m pistol event.