MONDAY, August 11, (News Locale) - August 11, 2008 will down as a red-letter day in the history of Indian sports. For 25-year-old Abhinav Bindra did what no one else has done before in the history of Indian Olympics - win a gold medal as an individual. 

It was a classic come from behind win for Bindra who had shown much promise as a child prodigy, but had failed to deliver on the biggest stage of them all. Bindra was lying fourth with just one round to go. In the final round Bindra clinched it with a perfect shot of 10.8 to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who eventually clinched the bronze in the 10m air rifle event.

China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion had to be content with a silver. The Chinese shooter burst into tears at the press conference soon after perhaps signifying the pressure he was under to perform well t home.

 "I was under tremendous pressure and at times I felt really agitated," Zhu admitted, adding he tried his best.

But the focus today clearly was on India's first individual gold medalist at the Olympics. This as also the country's first gold medal since the 1980 Olympics when India had clinched the hockey gold.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated Bindra on a great achievement.

Elsewhere, India's Saina Nehwal entered the quarterfinals of the badminton event by overcoming fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong  21-19 11-21 21-11 in a pre-quarterfinal game at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium.

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