Abhinav Bindra secured India's first medal of the 2008 Beijing

India's last Olympic gold medal was from hockey (8th gold) at the 1980 Moscow Olympics . Bindra's feat betters the silver medal effort of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the Athens Games in 2004.

Bindra won the 2006 World championships and finished seventh in Athens four years ago. ndia opened her medal tally in Beijing Olympics when Abhinav Bindra won a gold in men's 10-metre Air Rifle event. Abhinav Bindra shot 104.5 to take his total to 700.5 in the final. In ten rounds, Bindra shot 10.7, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10.6, 10.0, 10.2, 10.8 to clinch the gold. China's Qinan Zhu won silver while Finland's Henri Hakkinen won bronze.

This is India's first ever Olympic gold in any individual event and ninth in total. The other eight Olympic gold have come from hockey.Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men's 10m Air Rifle shooting title here on Monday.

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.

Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from the northern city of Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for his country.

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.
Abhinav Bindra Biography

Full name: Abhinav Bindra
Gender: Male
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 137 lbs (62 kg)
Born: September 28, 1982 in Dehradun,
Country: India

Sport: Shooting

Abhinav Bindra (born September 28, 1982[1]) is an Indian shooter specializing in the 10 m Air Rifle event. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Abhinav Bindra was the youngest Indian participant at the 2000 Olympic Games.[3] He won six gold medals at various international meets in 2001.

In the 10 m Air rifle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester, he won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he broke the Olympic record but failed to win a medal. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award in 2001 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for the year 2001-2002.