Chandigarh, March 17
Two-time Olympian and local shooter Abhinav Bindra made not only the city proud but also brought laurels to the nation by winning a gold medal today in the Commonwealth Games-2006 being held at Melbourne (Australia). The medal came in the 10-metre Air Rifle team event, shared by the team mate Gaurav Narang. The duo scored 1189/1200 to win the medal.
“Abhinav has lived up to the expectations of all near and dear ones. Now we are looking forward to the next competitions scheduled to be held on March 20, 21 and 24 in individual category”, said the elated father A S Bindra, who was busy attending to the congratulatory messages as well as distributing the sweets among his employees in his office here today.
Pinning high hopes on his son in the coming events of the competition, Dr Bindra viewed the achievement just as a start. “I know Abhinav’s capability and you see he will win at least three more gold medals there,” said the father confidently.
This is not the first time that the 24-year old Abhinav, who has been in competing in competitive shooting events for the last 11 years, has been bringing glory to the country at many top most international competitions. Earlier, he had won two gold medals in Commonwealth Games-2002 at Manchester. In European Circuit-2002 he was declared European Champion as he bagged six gold, four silver and three bronze medals. He has represented the country in Olympics in Sydney 2000 and in Athens 2004. In Sydney, he got joint 11th position with a score of 590/600 and was ranked second in Asia while in Athens he got seventh position in the finals.
Abhinav was conferred with Arjun Award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2000 and 2002, respectively, for his excellent performance.
Lieut Col Jagir Singh Dhillon, who has been imparting training to Abhinav since 1995, is confident about his winning the gold medal in the forthcoming Beijing Olympics in 2008. “Besides having parental support, he is also very hardworking and focused sportsman. The credit of the success goes to his parents, who provide him the best paraphernalia, as well as seven to eight hours daily practice,” said Colonel Dhillon, VSM and a shooter since 1952.
However, Dr Bindra seemed a little bit disappointed as neither any congratulatory message from Punjab Government nor any official came forward to praise the commendable job of its sportsperson. When Dr Bindra was asked about it, he said modestly, “Maybe the news has not reached the government channels”.
