We have a winner! In an incredibly tense 10 metres air rifle final, Abhinav Bindra held his nerve in the final round to bring home a gold medal.  The Indian flag will fly higher than all other flags, its national anthem drowning out that of the Chinese, Zhu Qinan (silver) and Finn, Henri Hakkinen(bronze). The cheers for Abhinav Bindra will no doubt become louder as India slowly wakes up to this achievement.  Soon the vibes will resonate all the way to Beijing. Its time to celebrate!

Bindra no doubt desereves all the kudos and rewards he is going to get over the coming weeks. Bindra is no newcomer to the event, despite his relatively young age, Bindra has been around for over a decade and has been a world champion and an Olympic finalist. More importantly, this victory should give immense confidence to all the athletes who are still in the reckoning for a medal- most notably the other shooters, and Saina Nehwal.

India’s First Individual Gold Medal

Meanwhile, this is the first Individual Olympic gold for India and our first gold since the men’s hockey class of 1980, the ninth ever gold medal overall and the first outside hockey. With the 10m Air Rifle, Abhinav Bindra has now gone ahead of Rajyavardhan Rathore who won silver at the Athens Olympics, Leander Paes of 1996, K D Jadhav, the wrestler of ’52 and Karnam Malleswari, the lifter at Sydney 2000 who all grabbed third place. To India’s benefit, two of those former medalists (Paes and Rathore) have still to perform at Beijing. We now have a genuine chance of going beyond the 1 medal jinx for the first time since sprinter Norman Prichard, who represented British India won two silvers way back in 1900.

We have got used to setting ourselves modest targets and cheering ourselves with any good results. Bindra, we hope is the first of many and we hope that engenders a genuine competitive interest in all sports. India will truly have arrived when instead of 57 athletes, half of them officials; India sends a 500 member team to the 2016 Olympics.For Indian sport that has suffered from a genuine lack of inspiration, this medal signifies the first mark, the first whimper of hope at the highest level of sports for the world’s second largest population. It is as if we have been digging for so long and after all these years have seen the glitter. More than anything else, the nation heaves a relieved sigh.    

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