Olympic moment: India's golden boy

August 11, 2008 is a red-letter in Indian sport.
Abhinav Bindra stood on the podium with a gold medal around his neck, fighting back tears as the National Anthem was played. It took only one shot, the last of the 10 that Bindra fired, to end years of under-achievement. And India’s never-ending wait for an individual Olympic gold was finally over.

Bindra, who faltered at the last hurdle in Athens four years ago, won the 10-metre air rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a total of 700.5 points. The Chandigarh lad, who was ranked 17th in the world, stunned one and all with his historic achievement.

In the final, Bindra was pitted against Athens Olympics champion Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland, both rated much higher than him. The final was intense. Bindra went into the medal round placed fourth and it was clear that he had to fire the next 10 shots at a superlative level to claw into medal contention. He cracked 10.7 on his first try — the best of the field. Then, he reeled off 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5 and 10.6 before the eighth shot — when he had already managed to gain the No 1 standing — brought in a low of 10. He followed that up with a 10.2 shot to which Zhu, the eventual silver medallist, responded with a 10.4. Their scores were tied.

It was quite fitting. The Olympic gold was to be decided on the final shot. Bindra was the first to fire. The board read 10.8 — his best effort. Zhu managed a response of 10.5 and India now had an individual Olympic gold medallist.