India Wins its First Individual Gold !!!

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Aug. 11 – Indian shooting champion Abhinav Bindra won India's first gold medal for the 10m air rifle competition at the Beijing Summer Olympics on Monday morning. He defeated China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion and Finland's Henri Hakkinen, who clinched silver and bronze respectively.

This is India's first gold in 28 years, and first ever individual gold medal.

Bindra, a Khel Ratna awardee, had earlier won the gold medal in 2002 Commonwealth Games in the pairs event and silver in the individual event. Bindra shot 104.5 to take his total to 700.5 in the final, edging out Zhu who had 699.7 points for the silver. Zhu won the gold medal in 2004. Hakkinen got the bronze with 699.4.

"We are all very happy. He is a very hardworking athlete. The entire shooting contingent is celebrating. We are very proud of him and it is just the beginning," national coach Sunny Thomas told the Times of India.

Earlier in the games, Anjali Bhagwat, Avneet Kaur and Gagan Narang all failed to qualify for the same event.