Abhinav Bindra wins India's first ever individual Olympic gold

Abhinav Bindra wins India's first ever individual Olympic gold   August 11. Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal when he won the finals of the Men's Air Rifle event.   Athens Games champion Zhu Qinan of China won the silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took the bronze at the Beijing Shooting Hall on the outskirts of the Chinese capital.   25 year old Bindra followed his world championship title two years ago at Zagreb to finally win a landmark gold medal for India.   In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.   "I was trying to concentrate on shooting. I wasn't thinking about making history. I mean I was two points behind at one stage. I was just trying to concentrate. I just wanted to shoot well, I just wanted to shoot aggressively, and that's what I did," said Bindra.   The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points. While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.   Bindra finished with a combined tally of 700.5, a fair distance behind Zhu's Olympic record of 702.7 set in Athens.   Zhu came in with 699.7 this time and Hakkinen, a member of Finland's armed forces who is taking part in his first Olympics, scored 699.4 points. "It can't get better than this, can it?" said an elated Bindra, a winner of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (sports jewel), in 2001. "I know India was waiting for this for a long time and so was I. I narrowly missed a medal at Athens so I knew I would be in with a chance if I focussed on the job."