India’s Olympic medal drought ended with Abhinav Bindra’s win in the 1om air rifle event.(link)

Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in men’s 10 metre air rifle event of the shooting competition at Beijing Olympics.

The gold medal is India’s first since 1980, when the hockey team emerged triumphant in Moscow.

Update: Bindra’s gold medal is the first gold by an Indian individual in the Olympics, ever. Bindra made clutch shot after clutch shot in the final round to zoom ahead of the two favorites, Henri Hakkinen of Finland and China’s Zhu Qinan.

Bindra had been fourth after qualifying but had a brilliant final round and the Indian, the epitome of tranquillity, hit a near perfect 10.8 on his last shot to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who fell to bronze with a poor final shot.

You know what they say about champions and when the going gets tough.

We had talked about Bindra and the shooting team here on Über Desi, expressing hope that they would finally end India’s dry spell. Following Bindra’s momentous win, most Indian supporters would be overcome by national pride. There are some naysayers who will try to disparage Bindra’s achievement by stating in their “infinite wisdom” that all he did was stand behind a desk and other equally “wise reasons”.

Yet as one sees the photo of this unassuming bespectacled champion, it is but hard not to feel happy for him.

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