Abhinav Bindra has this habit of coming back from the dead. The 23-year-old has had many a sortie in a career spanning more than 10 years. Every time he was written off, the Chandigarh shooter had made his critics eat their words. He did so two years ago at Athens by making it to the finals in the Olympics. And he has done it again in the ISSF World Championships at Zagreb: a gold and a coveted Olympic ‘quota’ place. Incidentally, Bindra will be participating in his third Olympics.

After Athens, Bindra had virutally given up the Air rifle event and began focusing on big bore event (300 m). At the Hyderabad nationals last year, Bindra was candid enough to admit that he may not be suited for the event (air rifle). ‘‘After so many years of hard work and training if I can’t win a Olympic medal, maybe, my choice of sport was wrong,’’ he had told this correspondent.

And all this amid speculation that Bindra, the youngest Rajiv Khel Ratna awardee, always promised a lot but rarely delivered. He has yet again proved that he is a big-stage player. He always gets pumped up when down in the dumps. The quality of a marksman is reflected when he is pitted against a top field.

And Zagreb had all top-notchers. But what clinched the issue in favour of Bindra, who scored 699.7 (597+102.7), was consistent throughout in the finals. Consider this. Bindra’s final 10 shots had just two scores of less than 10 as the series indicate: 10.3, 10.3, 10.3, 10.0, 10.6, 9.3, 10.9, 9.2, 10.5 and 10.7.

... contd.