Shooting To The Top

India has been participating in the Olympics for 108 years, but had never won a gold medal in an individual event.But that drought is finally over. Shooter Abhinav Bindra has written his name inrecord-books with gold letters by winning the 10 meter air rifle event at the Beijing Games on an eventful third daywhere, in badminton, Saina Nehwal moved a step closer to a medal.

Abhinav Bindra thus now tops the select, small band of individualswho have won medals for India in the Olympics.  That this victory camein what is arguably the most difficult shooting sport i.e. the10m Air Rifleevent makes it that much sweeter. The historic victory for the young pro from Chandigarh, in one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, came against heavy odds as he entered the event ranked number 17 in the world,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 for little as he came from a two-point deficit against Zhu and Haikkinen after the qualifying round andwon the title. From Randhir Singh, six time Olympian to Rajyavardhan SinghRathore, Olympic silver medallist in 2004 and M.S. Gill, the minister for sports and youth affairs,all were all close to dancing as Finnish shooter Henri Hakkinen managed just 9.7 on his last shot, which saw him slip to bronze. Minutes earlier Abhinav had fired a near-perfect 10.8 - the perfect being 10.9.

Keeping his composure in a crunch situation, he came up with a near perfect 10.8 in his final shot to ensure a top podium finish in the 10-metre air rifle event at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall. And to think that he is not even 25 yet. Born on September 28, 1983, Abhinavwas always seen as a child prodigy who has not quite delivered on his promise.But he clearly came good when it mattered the most.

He finished with 104.5 in the 10-shot final, taking his tally of points to 700.5 as against Zhu's silver winning performance of 699.7 (597102.7) and 699.4 (598101.4) byHakkinen. 

His first shot in the final -- a 10.7 -- saw him move to third place and by the time he was preparing to fire his fourth,he had risen to the second spot. 

A 10.6 on his seventh attempt earned Bindra the lead and in the deciding shot he got10.8 -- 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.

His win also ended India's 28-year-old gold drought since the hockey team fetched the top honour in the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

'99% Luck...'

"It can't be better than this. Can it? It's the best feeling of my life", an elated but composed Bindra said soon after achieving the feat."I sincerely hope my medal changes the face of India's Olympic sports," the bespectacled shooteradded.

As Bindra bowed his head to receive the gold medal from the Princess of Lichtenstein, a small country in central Europe, and the Indian national anthem was played out for the first time in this edition of Olympics, the shooter had his feet firmly on the ground, betraying little emotions.

"For me, life will go on as usual but I sincerely hope Olympic sports get a leg-up. It's not a priority back home and I hope more focus is paid to these events like shooting,"he said.

Asked about his scorching run in the finals, Bindra said it was a conscious plan to pull out all stops and it paid off. "I entered the final as fourth, which means I had to go all out for it. That's why I was so aggressive and it paid off in the end. I guess it was my day," he said.

Bindra, whose career at one stage was jeoparadised by a nagging back injury, said it was not easy to keep himself keyed up all along.

"I worked hard, left home and trained in Germany. It only proves that if you keep working hard, you would have your day someday and fortunately, it was my day today.My parents, family and coaches stood by me all along and I owe it to them," he said.

He came to the final of the ten metre air rifle event after a hard training session--seven hours of shooting and two hours of stretching andjogging, and yet he was as self-effacing as ever: "Shooting is 99 per cent luck and one per centtraining".

Clearly, the lady luck was finally smiling on Abhinav and his efforts were handsomely rewarded.

'I wasn't thinking about history. I was two points behind the leader. I just wanted to shoot and I wanted to shoot aggressively and that's what I did.'

And as he did that, people ran into streets in many Indian cities and towns waving the tricolour and distributing sweets to hail India's first Olympic gold medallist.

'My son has proved that 'Singh is King' in a real sense! He has brought laurels for the whole Sikh community and for the whole nation,'his father A.S. Bindra said.

Four Long Years

Bindra had shot into limelight when he won 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 the air rifle event, Bindrahad won a Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. 2001 hadclearly been his purple patch before today when he won six gold medals at various international meets in the European Circuit.That was also the year when he received the Arjuna Award. He was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year2001 in 2002

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, despite breaking the Olympic record, he had failed to win a medal. And he had also been immobilised by a severe back problem. 

'For me the last four years have been tough. After Athens it was hard to take the plunge all over again. But I decided to take it. I worked hard and went for it. There's not much to say except that you keep at it, and at it. One day it falls in your hand. That's what happened.'

He went on to become the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold inZagreb on July 24, 2006. 

With just one medal in Beijing so far, India figures in the 13th position in the overall medal table on the third day of the Olympics.Russia with six medals (four silver, two bronze) France with five (three silver, two bronze) and Germany with two (one silver and one bronze) are among the countries which are yet to win a gold.

Inspirational

While congratulatory messages have predictably poured in from all and sundry(the sports minister M.S. Gill was on record as saying rather enigmatically:"I congratulate myself and every other Indian") former Olympian Gurbux Singh,who was a member of the gold and bronze medal winning hockey teams in 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico Olympicgames respectively, put it in perspective:

"He has shown the way for others to follow. Let us hope that inspired by Bindra's success, Indian sportsmen achieve more golds at the forthcoming Olympics in 2012 and2016. In fact, Bindra, I'm sure, will motivate the others in the Indian contingent to do well at the remaining events. His success will also inspire the country to produce moreOlympians."

The 72-year old added, "Bindra has proved that India is now a force to reckon with. So let us hope for a good treatment from the government. Let us hope that the country now provides more training and foreign exposure to its athletes so that they are better prepared for the forthcoming Olympics."

Indirectly taking a dig at cricket, Gurbux Singh also added, "Let us not forget that Abhinav has won a gold medal in the Games where 204 countries are participating. It's not a tournament in which 8-10 nations takepart. His success ranks much higher. Bindra has set a precedent and people will now realise that besides cricket, there's a lot of fame and name in othersports.

"I was very hurt after our hockey team failed to qualify for the Olympics. I was so sad that I cancelled my trip to Beijing. However, being an Indian, I'm very happy and a proud man now," GurbuxSingh said.

But it was not as if the cricketers were differing. Kapil Dev, who in 1983 led India to its first World Cup victory inCricket was as direct as ever: 'Bindra has done the country proud. This is far bigger than any other sporting achievement. It is difficult to compare India's sporting laurels but I think this one has eclipsed all other feats.'Cricket Test captain Anil Kumble and the One Day captain M.S. Dhoni had similarviews to share.

Badminton

Incidentally, there were more celebrations in the Indian camp as Saina Nehwal stunned world number five Wang Chen's feet to move into the quarterfinals of the women's singles event of the badminton competition.

Saina, a dark horse in Beijing, delivered on her pre-Olympic promise to scalp a few higher ranked players and came up with a sublime performance to tame her illustrious opponent from Hong Kong 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in 52 minutes to reach the last eight stage.

In the quarter-finals, Saina meets Maria Kristin Yulianti, who is world number 16 and was part of Indonesia's Uber Cup runners-up team.

Saina's quarterfinal encounter is expected to be a great contest as Yulianti toohas looked in good form after edging out sixth seed Tine Rasmussen 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 in an hour-long gruelling battle.

Saina today proved why she is a force to reckon with in the badminton court as she seized early initiative, withstood a setback before delivering the knockout punch to upstage fourth seed Wang.

With two quality shuttlers engaged in a no-holds-barred contest, lead kept changing in the first game and Saina, trailing 16-19 looked in trouble before she reeled out five points on the trot to snuff out Wang's challenge.