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In Indian sports history, 11 August remains a special day, all thanks to shooting legend Abhinav Bindra. On this day, Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal. He scored a near-perfect 10.8 on his last shot in the men’s 10m air rifle shooting event at the Beijing 2008 Olympics , and at the age of 25, became an Olympic champion. Before this edition, Bindra missed his chance for a medal at Athens 2004.
The four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist got through the qualification easily as his compatriot Gagan Narang bowed out. During the sighting, a five-minute window, Bindra faced some problems as his gun sight was off and he made frantic changes before he could sort it out until the last minute. Bindra was calm after that and got into his zone once the gold-medal round began, he kept on shooting 10s through the finals and pulled away from his competitors.
In the final round, Bindra was level with Finland’s Henri Hakkinen, who topped the qualification stage. However, Hakkinen fell short at the crucial time and scored 9.7 on his final shot. Bindra, on the other hand, scored a near-perfect 10.8. In the contest, Bindra finished with a score of 700.5 and surpassed the Athens 2004 Olympics gold medallist Zhu Qinan, who had to settle for a silver. With this, Bindra became India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist.
