Finally, finally the wait ends. India win a Gold medal in an individual sport at the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra ends India’s drought with a superb come from behind finish to ensure his place in India’s sporting history. Most of the times our sportspersons have not been able to hold their nerve, Bindra held his and shot his best when it really mattered. Quoting the official report:

India’s Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle in Beijing on August 11 with an incredible performance in the final. Bindra shot a total score of 700.5.

The bronze medal was won by Finland’s Henri Hakkinen, who was leading the field after the qualification round, but was unable to hold off Bindra and Zhu in the final. The Finnish shooter shot a total of 699.4.

Hakkinen shot 598 in the qualification round, giving him a one point lead over Zhu. Bindra was one point further back with 596.

Bindra signals his intentions early in the final, with a 10.7 on his first shot. None of Bindra’s shots in the final dropped below 10.0.

Hakkinen’s performance in the final was solid, but it needed to be better. He averaged 10.14 per shot in the final, compared to Bindra’s 10.45.

Going into the last shot, Bindra and Hakkinen were tied for first place, but Bindra secured the gold medal with his best shot of the final, an outstanding 10.8.

Conversely, Hakkinen’s last shot was his worst, a lowly 9.7. This allowed Zhu to overcome Hakkinen and win the silver medal. Zhu shot 10.5 on his last shot.

Shooting is not on the sports that I can comment on, I will leave it to others to comment/ update, but for me, I am just going to enjoy the nice feeling. Link to the official report of the Beijing Games here.

First Posted at Prem Panicker's on August 11, 2008.