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Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra of India (R) is hugged by his coach Gabriele Buhlmann aftershootingin the finals of the men's 10m air rifle competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 11, 2008. [Agencies]
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BEIJING -- Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra totaled 700.5 points to win the men's 10-meter air rifle title after a hot chase in the final on Monday, winning India's first gold medal at the Beijing Games, and also its first individual title in Olympic history.
The 26-year-old shooter was ranked third with 596 points after the qualification round where Henri Hakkinen of Finland, with 598, and defending champion Zhu Qinan of China, with 597, ranked first and second respectively.
As the gold medalist in the 2006 Zagreb World Championships, Bindra pulled up his slacks from the beginning of the final, impressing spectators with a 10.7 in the first shot.
Zhu, however, didn't seem to be in good shape, firing a 9.9 at the third shot and hence plunged to the third.
Hakkinen did a decent job, but Bindra was better.
The Indian, with all his shots above 10 points, surpassed his Finnish rival after the seventh shot.
His lowest point was the eighth shot, a 10.0, when Zhu made a 10.6. This lent Chinese spectators a glim of hope.
But the 24-year-old Chinese Olympic record holder found his sharpness too late. After the ninth shot, he still had a 0.5-point gap behind the Indian.
In the breathtaking last shot, Bindra made a quick fire of 10.8 points to secure the gold.
After the competition, Indian spectators hurrahed and applauded for the victory.
"It was fantastic," repeated the excited champion. "A historic moment. I was not thinking too much. I just tried to shoot well."
After expressing his gratitude to his relatives and friends, he added, "I didn't expect to make history. I just wanna fly back."
Zhu stared at the big screen with his score, 699.7 points, for quite a while, struggling to hold back his tears.
When he mounted the podium, tears finally fell off and he wiped.
"I didn't know what was going on, my mind went blank," he chocked. "I couldn't get focused during the final as I did in the qualification."
He did well at the first four series of the six-series qualification with 100 points. A slow shooter, he lost one point in the fifth series and two in the last as time was up.
Zhu said that he had been under tremendous pressure before the competition.
"This time was much harder than Athens. My craving for the gold was much more than last time."
"I had been troubled by anxiety and bewilderment," he continued. "I was the defending champion. I fought hard with the inner self to get rid of the thoughts...but it was really hard."
Hakkinen, 28, got a bronze with 699.4 points.
"I am not very happy," said the riflist. "I really had chance maybe after the first few minutes to win."
In fact, his first nine shots were all above 10, although under 10.6. He just got a 9.7 in the last shot.
But he said, "It was just a bad game, all wrong shots."