अभिनव बिंद्रा का कारनामा!

India in Olympics was synonymous to a Gold Medal in Men’s Hockey. Well, that is past now and almost in the verge of being forgotten. India has won 8 Gold Medals, 1 Silver Medal and 2 Bronze Medals in Men’s Hockey since the first participation in 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Since inception, India won a Gold on every Olympics held from 1928 to 1956 – a span of 28 overwhelming years!! Outstanding, wasn’t that? Alas, the Men’s Hockey team is standing out of the Beijing Olympics this year! The present team has failed to even qualify for this year’s Olympic Games.

Apart from medals in Men’s Hockey, India has won 2 Silver Medals in Athletics, Bronze Medals in Wrestling ( Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, 1952, Helsinki), Shooting ( Dr Karni Singh, 1964, Tokyo), Lawn Tennis ( Leander Paes, 1996, Atlanta) and Weightlifting ( Karnam Malleswari, 2000, Sydney). However, we could never win any other Gold Medal in any individual event.

History was to be changed this year and it favorably changed. A Gold Medal came after a draught of 28 years. (The last one came in Men’s Hockey in 1980 Moscow Olympics) India won her first individual Gold Medal in Shooting. Abhinav Bindra won the first ever individual Gold Medal in this year’s Beijing Olympics in the 10 meters Air Rifle Shooting competition. I was most fortunate to watch the final moments on DD Sports this Monday Morning. Wow! The last shot of 10.8 was the thriller, which Abhinav later described as one part of his strategy. If he can make strategies like that, India will be prized with more Gold Medals in the future. Abhinav achieved the feet over smarting Zhu Qinan of China and Henri Hakkinen of Finland.

Abhinav hails from Zirakpur in Chandigarh, Punjab. He was the youngest participant in the 1998 Commonwealth Games and in 2000 Summer Olympic Games (from India). In the year 2000 Abhinav received Arjuna award and in 2001 he was awarded with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna which happens to be India's highest recognition award in sports. He went on to win Gold Medal in the Pairs event and Bronze Medal in the Singles event in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He is the current World and Olympic champion in the 10 meters Air Rifle event. Three cheers to Abhinav and heartiest congratulations for his efforts. Hope we will be blessed by many more medals and more such high achievers in the field of sports in the coming years. This year, the Independence Day should be happier than before and this Gold Medal would be cheered all over the country along with the I Day Celebrations.

Happy 61st Indian Independence Day!

स्वाधीनता दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं !!