Abhinav Bindra's birthday: Wishes pour in for India's 1st individual Olympic gold medalist

Abhinav Bindra needs no introduction, he is the first and one of only two Indians to win an individual Olympic Gold Medal. More importantly, the ace shooter is also the first Indian to have held concurrently the world and Olympic titles for the men's 10-meter air rifle event by emerging triumphant at the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships and 2008 Beijing Olympics Games.

Abhinav Bindra rang in his 39th birthday on Tuesday and wishes poured in for one of India's most accomplished sportspersons on social media as he turned a year older.

Abhinav Bindra birthday: Fans come up with unique wishes for the Olympic gold medalist

Abhinav Bindra in Beijing Olympics

On August 11, 2008, India's Abhinav Bindra made history after he shot 10.8 on his last shot to win the Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. Bindra was tied with Finland's Henri Hakkinen before the last shot, and the 10.8 was his highest score of the final, while Hakkinen slipped to 9.7 to settle for bronze. Abhinav Bindra's gold medal triumph remains India's only individual gold medal at the Olympics so far. He secured a top-podium finish with a final score of 104.5 — 1.8 higher than the silver medallist, Zhu Qinan of China.

Abhinav Bindra's illustrious shooting career

A 15-year-old Abhinav Bindra was the youngest participant at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, while he also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics as the youngest Indian participant where he finished 11th. In the 2004 Olympics at Athens, Bindra set a new Olympics record during the qualifying stages but failed to win a medal as he slipped to seventh in the final round. The shooter's moment arrived in Beijing where clinched the top spot on the podium. The 2008 Olympic gold medallist failed to qualify for the final round in the following London Olympic Games in 2012. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bindra agonisingly finished fourth, after losing a shoot-off for the top 3 to Serhiy Kulish, who eventually won the silver. 

Abhinav Bindra has won more than 50 medals in his 22-year career. He received the Padma Bhushan and remains one of the top sports influencers in the country. Bindra also had great success in the Commonwealth Games, bagging gold medals in the Air Rifle pairs category for three consecutive games. In the singles category, Bindra won the gold medal in 2014 in Glasgow, having won the bronze and silver medals in previous editions. He also won three medals  (two bronze, one silver) in the Asian Games. Bindra retired after the 2016 Olympics and is currently working to integrate sports, science, and technology into Indian sports and encourage high-performance physical training through the Abhinav Bindra Foundation. 

(Image: PTI)