Gold flurry for Abhinav

As soon as news of Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang's combined effort that yielded India's its first gold medal in the ongoing Commonwealth Games.

As soon as news of Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang’s combined effort that yielded India’s its first gold medal in the ongoing Commonwealth Games,reached Lt Col JS Dhillon’s ears,the first thing that he did was call Abhinav to congratulate on his feat. After all,Abhinav had been Dhillon’s brightest student and he wanted to make sure that he was among the first to hear words of joy from his ward. “I was elated to hear the news. I called him up to congratulate,but could not reach to him. Although,I spoke to his mother and gave my wishes,” shared a jubilant Dhillon after the Abhinav-Narang duo scored 1193 in the men’s 10m air rifle event to grab gold. Incidentally,the duo had broken their own record,set four years ago at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Long before Abhinav left for Delhi to participate in the event,the coach had given his blessings and some motivational lectures too. “After coming back from camp at Pune,Abhinav asked me to come over to his place so that we could start practising again. He was very enthusiastic about the upcoming tournaments,especially Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. I told him to concentrate on scores and not on winning medals. I told him to score as many points as possible,” said the 59-year-old. Bindra had scored 595 points out of 1193 and this was his third successive gold in pair events in Commonwealth Games following gold medals in Manchester and Melbourne editions. Col Dhillon happens to be Abhinav’s first shooting coach. It was under his tutelage that Bindra went on to become a rage at the junior circuit.

Back in business
After the high of Beijing Olympics,where Abhinav won India its first individual gold medal,the shooter’s life hit a rock bottom as National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) put him out of the Commonwealth Games core group after failing to turn up for trials. Bindra had even contemplated quitting shooting after the incident. And it was during those hard times that Dhillon had lent a patient ear and helped him get out the situation. “I told him that although he had won an Olympic gold,he was yet to create a record in the Olympic Games. I also told him that he had the support of his parents and the well-wishes of millions of people. It took a lot of persuasion and motivation to bring his hunger back,” said Dhillon.

Avneet Sidhu,who had travelled with Bindra as a team-mate in Olympics and Commonwealth Games,believes that Abhinav’s mental toughness had helped him get out of troubled waters and make a winning return to the Commonwealth Games core group. “There is always pressure on a sportsperson to come out of controversy and win medals. But Abhinav’s experience,his past performances and mental toughness has helped him come out triumphantly. And when you play for India,you leave all other things behind and concentrate only on your game and Abhinav does it the best,” shared Avneet,who had paired with Tejaswini Sawant in the Melbourne edition in 2006 to clinch gold in women’s 10 metre air rifle event. Dhillon’s eyes are now fixed on Abhinav’s performance in singles events. “I hope he wins gold for India. He is in good form,” he shared.

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