India clinched its first ever individual Olympic gold medal in 108 years when Abhinav Bindra won the 10 meter air rifle event in one of the most pulsating shooting finals in the history of the world's biggest sporting extravaganza. The historic victory for the 25-year-old pro from Chandigarh came against heavy odds as he entered the event ranked number 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 (597+102.7) and 699.4 (598+101.4) 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 from Chandigarh also ended India's wait for a gold since the hockey team fetched a yellow metal in the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
"It can't better than this. Can it?" 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 shooter told reporters.
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, Abhinav 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 jeopardised 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.
Even in his hour of supreme glory, Bindra was magnanimous towards his rival when he applauded Zhu for his performance and said "he should be happy that he won a medal".
Bindra's compatriot Gagan Narang too almost made it to the final but was ruled out on countback. Gagan scored 595, levelled at the fifth place but lost out on a final place in countback.
Television news channels were giddy in their coverage, showing footage of Bindra receiving his medal and the raising of the Indian flag on a continuos loop, interrupted only by interviews with his parents from their home in northern India.
"He's done the country proud, he's done us proud and himself proud," Bindra's mother Babli told the CNN-IBN news channel, noting that he was now probably the country's most eligible bachelor.
Praise poured in from India's president and prime minister who hailed his "golden performance."
It seemed almost everyone wanted to be associated with him.
India's Madhya Pradesh state announced a prize of 500,000 rupees (US$11,900) for Bindra, while the state of Maharashtra awarded him 1 million rupees (US$23,800) -- even though he is not a resident of either. The impoverished state of Bihar said it would name a stadium after him.
Not to be outdone, his home state of Punjab awarded him 10 million rupees (US$238,000).
Meanwhile India's charismatic Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced that Bindra would get a gold pass to go along with his gold medal -- letting him and a companion ride the railways (in the first class, air conditioned compartments) free for the rest of his life.
"Bindra's remarkable achievement will inspire other Indian athletes to perform excellently in the remaining parts of the Olympics," Prasad said.
Bindra's gold medal ended a long drought for India which has never won an individual event before and last won a team gold at the 1980 Moscow Games in men's field hockey, a sport in which it once dominated but did not even qualify for at Beijing.
It's a sporting record that has long been regarded as an embarrassment for India, with its huge population of some 1.1 billion people.
In Athens, India won just one silver, while China, the only other country with a billion-plus population, won 63 medals -- 32 of which were gold.
Bindra's father described the win as vindication.
"On the podium the Chinese man was crying, while today India is laughing," said his father A. S. Singh, referring to second place Chinese shooter Zhu Qinan.
Much of the reason for India's past failures is that with the country mired in poverty for much of the previous century, it had very little resources to devote to sport. And what there was went to the national obsession -- the non-Olympic sport of cricket.
Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, who had warned the country not to expect many medals in Beijing, said he hoped the gold will inspire Indians beyond cricket.
"It's a great day in the history of Indian sports. Finally, we got an individual gold," Kalmadi told reporters in Beijing.
"Cricket rules the roost in India, but now the youngsters have a role model who plays some other sport. It augurs well for us," he said.
Perhaps, indicating the change, India's powerful cricket board announced that it to was giving Bindra a cash prize of 2.5 million rupees (US$60,000).
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