The Silent Killer - India's PRIDE
Abhinav Bindra won India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men’s 10m Air Rifle shooting title in China on Sunday. He is always rousing, I believed he would do it for India! YOU ARE THE MAN!
Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for MY 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 annexe the title.
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).
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.
He has finished better than we could have asked for.
