Arun’s blog

Day one of the 2008 Beijing Olympics left much to be desired from the Indian contingent. However, India started Day 2 on a winning note on with Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continuing her winning run in the singles of the women’s badminton event.

Saina Nehwal advances to pre-quarterfinals of women’s singles event at the Beijing Olympics, beating Ukraine’s Larysa Gryga 21-18 21-10 21-18 21-10 to make the last 16. She would now be up against the winner of the match between world number three Hong Kong’s Chen Wang and Slovakia’s Eva Sladekova.

Unlike the easy first-round win, the national champion was up for a tough challenge today and the first game went neck-and-neck before Saina edged past to grab the lead.

The Indian seemed more at ease with the hot and humid conditions in the Chinese capital compared to Gryga, who found it tough to maintain her energy levels in the second game and gave up rather timidly.

A star-starved nation found a new sporting icon in a bespectacled marksman as Abhinav Bindra shot his way to history, winning India’s first ever individual Olympic gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event on Monday.
The sharpshooter from Chandigarh lit up an otherwise gloomy day at the Beijing Shooting Range and sizzled in the finals to lift the gold, ahead of his Chinese and Fin rivals. This is how he made his way to the Gold:

Abhinav entered the event as world number 17. But he shot his way to enter the final in fourth place.
Bindra had shot a total of 596 out of 600, shooting a perfect 100 in 3 of the 6 rounds of the qualifiers, to finish 4th and qualify 2 points behind Henri Hakkinen of finland .

He then raised his game by a few notches. In the all-important final, he never scored below 10 as he topped the chart with a total of 700.5, adding 104.5 to his qualifying round score of 596.

His first shot of the final, a 10.7, saw him move to the third place and by the time he was preparing to shoot his fourth, the Indian had risen to the second spot.

A 10.6 on his seventh attempt earned him the lead and Bindra held on to it. He then scored a 10.0, 10.2 and finally a 10.8 to clinch the first berth.

His scores in the ten rounds of the finals were: 10.7, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10.6, 10.0, 10.2, 10.8.

Local favourite and defending champion Qinan Zhu of China won silver, while Finland’s Hakkinen won bronze.

Final scores: Abhinav Bindra 700.5 (596+104.5). Qinan Zhu 699.7 (597+102.7). Henri Hakkinen 699.4 (598+101.4).