Abhinav Bindra wins gold in 10m air rifle

[devgupt]

NEW DELHI: World champion Abhinav Bindra claimed the first ever individual gold for India to win the men's 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics.

Earlier, Bindra ended the poor run of Indian shooters by qualifying for event finals. Bindra finished the qualifying event joint fourth with Romania's George Alin Moldoveanu after the duo shot a score of 596/600. He scored a series of 100,99,100,98,100 and 99 in the qualifiers.

However, India's other medal hope Gagan Narang failed to make the final cut in the same event finishing ninth with a score of 595/600. Narang shot a series of 97, 100, 100, 100, 98 and 100.



India Challenge*-*India@Beijing*-*Beijing 2008 Olympics - The Times Of India


That's awesome :));):) A fantastic news . The man has just achieved immortality in our national consciousness

[Ray]

Great!

[Yusuf]

Congrats to him. all other medal hopefuls have disappointed.

[Yusuf]

When he returns to India, he will be given a heroes welcome and then will be forgotten. Thats how the pattern is.
India needs a state sponsored drive in sports. Look at what China is doing. Here its the associations and their members that make the money. play politics and ruin careers and prospects.

[Blademaster]

Well at least we got a gold medal!!! It has been, what, years since we got ONE SINGLE FRICKING gold medal! *shakes head at sad state of Indian sports*

[Taurkon]

Grats to India and Abhinav. India must be very proud!

:)

[Jay]

Proud, I'm astounded, I still wonder how we won Gold.

FVck, as per some media reports, these shooters didn't have ammunition couple months back for their training.

This guy has to be god damn good, if not overcoming IOC's support or lack off is a miracle by itself.

Good show Abhinav.

I'm looking forward for Saina and Sridhar now.

[Mobbme]

Congrats! Hopefully India will win more.

[Jay]

BEIJING: Akhil Kumar did the unthinkable and upstaged world champion Sergey Vodopyanov in an edge-of-the-seat thriller to put himself just one win away from an Olympic medal on Friday. The Haryana boxer, trailing 2-6 at one stage drew parity in the dying seconds and won on points to reach the quarter-final of the 54kg category at the Workers' Gymnasium. ( Watch )

Though the boxer insists he is not ready to settle for anything less than the gold, he would be assured of a medal if he wins his quarter-final bout on Sunday. The Russian world champion grabbed early initiative and had a slight edge in both the rounds as he raced to a 6-2 lead midway through the third round.

To make it even more difficult for the Indian, the Russian used both the orthodox and southpaw stance but it did not really paid off as Akhil went on the offensive. Akhil eventually prevailed in the third round to reduce the gap (7-8) and then in the final round, landed a couple of punches on the Russian to drew parity at 9-9.

With both the boxers levelled at 9-9, the Indian was declared the winner on points. "It was not easy, for he is the world champion but once I levelled the score, I knew I cannot lose," said Akhil, bathed in sweat.

"It's not possible to assure you of the gold but I can tell you that I'm here to win only gold," said the boxer, oozing confidence. "I know things would not be easier, in fact it would get even more difficult from now onwards. But I'm here to do my job and return with the gold. If luck decides the outcome, I may return with the bronze. But if confidence is the determining factor, gold is mine," he thundered.

Coach GS Sandhu was effusive in praise for his ward and said, "Only Akhil can do that. He was all along confident and he proved that it was not mere wishful thinking on his part. We are so proud of him. The job, however, is not done yet, even though the win would fill him with more confidence. Trailing 2-6, few would have come out winner but he managed that. He is supremely confident and knows what he is going to do."

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Hopefully Akhil gets through the Quarter's.

[Blademaster]

Awesome!! Way to go Akhil!!! Go all the way!! We need another medal!!!

[Jay]

Bindra suffered a lot for his gold: Abhinav's coach
15 Aug 2008, 0005 hrs IST, Alok Sinha,TNN

Gabriela Buhlmann is a short, 44-year-old Swiss lady who trains some of the best rifle shooters in the world. She coaches Abhinav Bindra too.

‘Gaby’ was standing on the steps of the main shooting hall on Thursday afternoon, enjoying a smoke and looking at the rain outside when TOI caught up with her. She seemed to withdraw for a while, sensing what was coming up, but soon relaxed.

‘‘Hi Gaby, you must be personally very happy for Abhinav but what’s this bit about the gun being tampered with?’’ She took a drag on her cigarette, flicked her hair back and looked back straight into the eyes.

‘‘Don’t know. When he went into the toilet, I was smoking outside. Don’t know when and how it happened.

"I don’t know how it’s possible." She refused to say anything more on the issue. You then asked her about Bindra and his preparations, and how training away from home helped. ‘‘I don’t know whether being a part of the system helps or not. As for Abhinav, being in Europe helped him."

He was smart to move away from system, says coach

Laszlo Szuscak was furious on Thursday. The Abhinav Bindra controversy had got the Hungarian coach of India’s air rifle team all worked up.

"How can you do this? One gold medal after ages and you spoil it by all this. Do you know that several countries have walked out these ranges empty-handed. You Indians are crazy," he screamed. "Don’t want to talk about it. It is ridiculous," he said, throwing his arms about.

Szuscak coached Bindra before the Sydney Olympics but went to Japan after that for four years. He has been training the air rifle shooters for the past two years and also had a strong word to say about the Indian system.

"You know why Abhinav won? Because he was smart enough to move out of the system. He went away, trained on his own and was ready.

"The Indians are good shooters, very hard-working but think about the system. There is the problem of ammunition, the shooting ranges are archaic and no one is willing to wait. You don’t win medals like that," he said.



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Now thats the sad state our athletes had to contend with, I wonder whose pockets are getting filled, find him and shoot him with the same bad ammunition they've issued for the training.

[American_Raider]

Congrats to Indian members here, hope this is the 1st gold of many more to follow.

[Tomluter]

Congrats! Indian team's upswing.

Canada still zero? It's a so big country,and send so many athletes to Olympics.

and,a complaint: swimming items are too many.should cut down some.

[bengalraider]

had along time coming , hope some private concern like reliance takes over the fiance of the indian olympic team next time we could wina lot more

congrats to abhinav bindra and akhil

[glyn]

What a ridiculous fuss about a single medal! Why aren't the Americans screaming from the rooftops about having the greatest Olympian of all time in Michael Phelps? Because they are adult enough to let the facts speak for themselves! Perhaps you should learn from them.