Olympic Gold Lustre for India, Finally!!!

25-year-old Abhinav Bindra cracked the Olympic Gold puzzle for India becoming the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics. Though India has won eight hockey golds at the world's largest sporting regatta, it only has a handful of individual medals: bronze for Leander Paes (1996), K Jadhav (1952); Karnam Malleshwari (2000) and silver for Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004).

Bindra, who looked in shock, during the presentation ceremony, later quipped, "It doesn't get better than this, does it?". He can afford to joke now, 4 years after being savaged for failing to fulfill the promise he showed as a child prodigy. Though he created a new world record at the 2004 Athens Olympics, people chose to judge him on his failure to win a medal. Such was the extent of expectations from this bespectacled soft-spoken youngster who won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2002 and the Arjuna Award in 2001.

This youngster has an entrepreneurial head on his shoulders: Bindra is the CEO of Abhinav Futuristics, a PC games peripherals distributor based in Chandigarh.

There will be a lot of people who will now claim to have had a hand in fashioning the young man's success. But this Olympic Gold is Abhinav's and his alone. Cherish it, young man! Today, you are the toast of a nation hungry for sporting success. May we talk of you long into the years.