Good job Bindra

Hello readers
For the last four weeks I've been down with Jaundice. When I was diagnosed after a blood test ,my eyeballs were fiendishly yellow , my stomach was on the verge of imploding and I had almost completely lost my mind. So, I was hospitalized .It took me four days in the hospital to regain my appetite and some degree of composure.

I was eventually discharged . The doctor prescribed four more weeks of complete bed rest and a truckload full of medicine. So, at home , pretty much bedridden , on a bright Monday morning ,I switched on the TV to checkout how India is faring in the deciding third test match between India and Sri Lanka. I saw a breaking news scrolling on a news channel ,saying that an Indian shooter named Abhinav Bindra had qualified to the finals of some 10 meter event.When I switched to DD sports I saw a table which showed the results of the qualifying round and Bindra's name was fourth on it.

I sat up with excitement. This was a great opportunity for Bindra to make history. I also had my doubts because, as we all know very well ,our athletes have a history of screwing up when it matters the most.Two names which come to my mind are Milkha Singh and P.T Usha. Bindra was fourth on the list and the points from the qualifying round were to be carried on to the final event , so to entertain any likelihood of a medal, he had to outperform his qualifying efforts .

I didn't have an inkling of an idea about the rules of Shooting, so thanks to the DD sports commentators ( I find the lot very irksome on most accounts) I understood that there is a board with concentric circles on which the shooter is supposed to aim . If the shot hits the board inside the smallest circle then the shooter would get a score between 10.0 and 11.0 depending on how close to the center the shot lands. In the final event all the shooters who had qualified were allowed ten shots each .

The final event began and after the first four shots Bindra had crept up to the third position. After a couple of more shots he was second and after the eighth shot he was on top of the list. All his shots were marked above 10.2 which showed remarkable consistency. He was followed by a Finnish shooter called Hakkinen at second position and by a Chinese shooter at third . Bindra's ninth shot was a meager 10. 0 , a major setback by the high standards he had set, right through the final round . Hakkinen, whose ninth shot was marginally better than Bindra's drew level . At this juncture they both had equal sum of points.

There was one shot left, and because of my skepticism as regards Indian athletes I had my reservations on Bindra not doing something silly. He proved me wrong and shot a fantastic 10.8 which was his best shot in the entire final round. At the same time Hakkinen messed up his last shot with a paltry 9.7. Not only did he lose the gold medal , he also squandered the silver as the Chinese shooter had shot his last shot well and ended up overtaking the Finn.

It was quite phenomenal to behold Bindra's uncompromising resolve and absolute focus in the final round.He reserved his best for the last and didn't ever look slightly nervous. Had he settled for a silver or a bronze, he would have still been heralded as an icon by our berserk media . The government which had almost no contribution in his success would have still offered him Crores of rupees as bounty and all kinds of medallions for being the saving grace for India at the Olympics . Instead he tarnished India's 28 year amazing feat of zero gold medals in the Olympics.

Afterward as he stood on top of the podium ,there wasn't any animated show of emotion from him ,just a sly smile as he was handed over a bouquet of flowers first and then an accolade which no individual Indian athlete has ever accomplished before ;an Olympic gold medal. And by the way the Indian cricket team lost the test match the very same day and it almost went unnoticed by the media and most cricket fanatics like me.