Congratulation Bindra for bringing the name of India to gold winners list of Olympics 2008.
Abhinav Bindra won India’s first ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men’s 10m Air Rifle shooting title here on Monday.
Athens Games champion Zhu Qinan of China won the silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took the bronze at the Beijing Shooting Hall on the outskirts of the Chinese capital.
Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from the northern city of Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for his country.
In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annex the title.
The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points.
While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.
Bindra finished with a combined tally of 700.5, a fair distance behind Zhu’s Olympic record of 702.7 set in Athens.
Zhu came in with 699.7 this time and Hakkinen, a member of Finland’s armed forces who is taking part in his first Olympics, scored 699.4 points.
India, winners of eight field hockey gold medals, had never won an individual Olympic title before Bindra’s feat.
The previous best was trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore’s silver at Athens, while there were bronze medals for wrestler Khasaba Jadhav (1952), tennis star Leander Paes (1996) and woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (2000).
Achievements: Made a junior world record score of 597/600 in 2001 Munich World Cup and won bronze; gold in 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games; became the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold; Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2001.
Abhinav Bindra is the brightest star among a new breed of talented Indian shooters. Born on September 28, 1983, Bindra is quite often criticized for not delivering on the promise he showed as a child prodigy.
Coming from an affluent family and with the luxury of an indoor range in his backyard, Bindra proved to an early bird and, at 15, was the youngest participant at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Bindra shot into limelight by winning a bronze in the 2001 Munich World Cup with a new junior world record score of 597/600.
In the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, competing in his pet Air rifle event, Bindra won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. During a purple patch, Bindra won six gold medals at various international meets in the European Circuit in 2001. He was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2001.
In the 2004 Athens Olympics, despite breaking the Olympic record Bindra failed to win a medal. But on July 24, 2006, Bindra became the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb. Dr. Karni Singh’s silver in 1962 was the previous best by an Indian in a World Championship meet.
Originally posted 2008-08-11 11:53:44.
Related posts:
October 5th, 2009 1:27 pm
[...] More Details… [...]
November 30th, 2009 10:54 am
Thanks for your informative post there.