Rifle shooter and one of India’s greatest sportspersons Abhinav Bindra was on Thursday honoured with the International Shooting Sport Federation(ISSF)’s President’s Button and Diploma of Honour- the highest honour of the body- for his immense contribution to the sport of shooting.
He was bestowed with the honour at the Dr.Karni Singh Shooting Range, on the sidelines of the Asian Olympic Shooting qualifier that are presently on, by the President of the ISSF- Olegario Vazquez Rana.
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The 33-year-old Dehradun-born shooter became the 1st Indian to win an Olympic Gold in eijing in 2008, when he fired a total tally of 700.5( 594 in qualifying and 104.5 in the final) to take home, perhaps the biggest prize in sport.
He also remains the only Indian to be crowned both World champion as well as Olympic champion in the same cycle. Two years prior to winning in Beijing, Bindra has won the Gold at the World Championships that were held in Zagreb. He remains the only Indian so far to achieve this feat.
He made the cut for Rio 2016 where he finsihed 6th in the 10m Air Rifle finals at the Munich World Cup in May.
Indian Shooting has progressed well: Bindra
Talking about India’s chances in Rio 2016, the shooter felt that the contingent that travels this time around would be much more and felt that the sport in the country had progressed well over the years.
"We might end up having more people in Rio this time. I am happy with the progress shooting sport has made in India over the years.
When asked about his own preparations, he said it was going well and added he was heading abroad for his training.
“My preparations are going fine. I am leaving for Germany for training and competition and I have my team there, including coach and physiotherapist,” he said.
