The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Beijing

Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men's 10m Air Rifle shooting title here on Monday.

Athens Games champion Zhu Qinan of China won the silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took the bronze at the Beijing Shooting Hall on the outskirts of the Chinese capital.

Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from the northern city of Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for his country.

In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two- point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.

The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points.

While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.

Bindra finished with a combined tally of 700.5, a fair distance behind Zhu's Olympic record of 702.7 set in Athens.

Zhu came in with 699.7 this time and Hakkinen, a member of Finland's armed forces who is taking part in his first Olympics, scored 699.4 points.

India, winners of eight field hockey gold medals, had never won an individual Olympic title before Bindra's feat.

The previous best was trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore's silver at Athens, while there were bronze medals for wrestler Khasaba Jadhav (1952), tennis star Leander Paes (1996) and woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (2000).

Meanwhile, Rebecca Adlington claimed Great Britain's first-ever individual women's Olympic freestyle gold medal with a stunning victory in the women's 400-metres freestyle at the Beijing Games today.

The 19-year-old English swimmer, competing in her first Olympics, out-touched American Katie Hoff at the wall to win in four minutes 03.22 seconds.

Hoff looked set to pinch the gold medal when she sprinted clear at the 300m but Adlington, trailing by 1.5 seconds at the last turn, wore her down in the final 50m for a sensational win.

Joanne Jackson added the icing to the British victory by grabbing the bronze medal and both hugged each other in an embrace over the pool ropes celebrating the unexpected victory.

Adlington went into the final eighth-ranked in the world, but left Italian world record holder Federica Pellegrini (fifth) and French world champion Laure Manaudou (eighth) in her wake in one of the great British Olympic swimming triumphs.

Sarah Hardcastle had come closest to victory in the Olympic event finishing second behind American Tiffany Cohen at the 1984 Los Angeles.

June Croft finished with bronze in that final and Catherine Gibson took bronze at London in 1948.