Abhinav Bindra
INDIA clinched its first ever individual Olympic gold medal in 108 years when Abhinav Bindra won the 10m air rifle event in one of the most pulsating shooting finals in the history of the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza in Beijing yesterday.
The historic victory for the 25-year-old pro from Chandigarh came against heavy odds as he entered the event ranked No. 17 in the world and pitted against Athens Olympic champion Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland rated much higher than him.
But Bindra proved that reputation and history counted little as he overcame a two-point deficit against Zhu and Haikkinen after the qualifying round and annexed the title.
Bindra emerged triumphant in the 10-shot final with a finish of 104.5, taking his tally of points to 700.5 as against Zhu’s silver winning performance of 699.7 and 699.4 by Hakkinen, which gave the Finn Army marksman the bronze.
His first shot of the final a 10.7 saw him move to the third place and by the time he was preparing to shoot his fourth, the Indian had risen to the second spot.
A 10.6 on his seventh attempt earned Bindra the lead and in the deciding shot he got 10.8, way ahead of 10.5 by the Chinese and 9.7 by the Finn to bring India the first ever gold medal by an individual since the country first participated in Olympics in 1900.
The businessman also ended India’s wait for a gold since the hockey team fetched a yellow metal in the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
India, a nation of a billion people addicted to cricket, have won eight field hockey Olympic gold medals but had never won an individual title before Bindra’s feat.
The previous best was trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore’s silver at Athens four years ago, while there were bronze medals for wrestler Khasaba Jadhav (1952), tennis star Leander Paes (1996) and woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (2000).(SD-Agencies)