India bagged its first ever individual Olympic gold medal in 108 years when Abhinav Bindra won the 10-metre air rifle event in one of the most exciting shooting finals in the history of the world's biggest sporting spectacle. Abhinav's first individual gold for India is hailed as a historic breakthrough that augurs well for the country's future.
India's fledgling Olympic campaign received a sensational boost with unheralded grappler Sushil Kumar clinching a bronze medal at Beijing. Sushil found his way to the record books by becoming only the second wrestler in India's Olympic history to win a bronze medal in the men's 66 kg freestyle category.
Though fighting hard for a gold, Vijender Kumar settled with a bronze at Beijing Games and gave the country a first Olympic medal ever. Vijender's heroics added to a record of three medals for India, as the country never got three medals from the Olympics.
Akhil Kumar, the confident boxer from Bhiwani was stranded on the cusp of history and his dream of becoming India's first Olympic boxing medal winner lay in tatters as he lost rather tamely his 54kg bout against unheralded Moldovan Gojan Veaceslav 3-10 in the quarterfinal. His future indeed looks promising.
Another Bhiwani pugilist Jitender Kumar went down fighting for bronze in the quarterfinals of the men's 51 kg category. Making his Olympic debut, Jitender Kumar showed maturity beyond his age and won an essentially a tactical battle to reach the quarters.
Teen prodigy Saina Nehwal produced a stunner in the women's singles of badminton by outlasting world No. 6 Wang Chen of Hong Kong 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 to storm into the quarterfinals. But she could not get through beyond that. The young player has way to go in the badminton career here on.