Abhinav Bindra bids adieu to shooting career officially

India’s lone individual Olympic gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra on Sunday officially hanged his boots. The Beijing gold medallist announced his retirement from shooting and said it is the right time for him to move forward.

He missed his second Olympic medal by a whisker at the recently-concluded Rio Olympics 2016.  

Having started his Olympic journey in Sydney back in 2000, the 33-year-old shooter qualified in three Olympic finals including his golden journey of Beijing in 2008 (Athens being the other one) in his pet 10m air rifle, while he missed out in Sydney and London.

Bindra’s gold medal was also India's first gold medal since 1980, when the Men's Field Hockey Team won the yellow medal. He is the first and only Indian to have held both the World and Olympic titles at the same time, a feat he accomplished by capturing the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

 Not only Olympic, Abhinav had also bagged Gold Medal in 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.

The govt of India conferred Bindra with Arjun Award in 2000, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2009.