Sport - Sports : General

Bindra aiming for shooting bull’s-eye

NEW DELHI: Two years ago he battled a career-threatening back problem to become the World champion in air rifle. Now, he is ready to beat the strong Chinese and the rest of the world to become the Olympic champion.

From being the youngest shooter in the Sydney Olympics, the 25-year-old Abhinav Bindra has indeed come a long way, as he ventures into his third Olympics in Beijing.

“It is an opportunity to do well. I will try and perform to the best that I can on the world’s biggest stage,”says Bindra, with disarming simplicity, as he looks ahead, after having made the final in the last edition in Athens.

He had to skip the last Asian Games in Doha to strengthen his back, but Bindra has not spared anything from physical training to studying his brain for optimum performance, in preparing for Beijing.

“I have tried to prepare to the best of my abilities for the last two years. It has not been easy after my back problem. I have had to change a lot.

“But am very happy and proud of my efforts,” he said when contacted by The Hindu in Germany where he is training with his coach Gaby Buehlmann of Switzerland.

Bindra had trained with the Indian team for about 10 days in Hannover but generally opts to do his own training.

He had imbibed the basic lessons from Laszlo Szucsak of Hungary, the current rifle coach with the Indian team who was with the Indians till the Sydney Olympics in his last stint.

Bindra made the final in Athens but finished outside the medals bracket despite shooting at his best. There is hope again this time that the Chandigarh man will win a medal for India.

“There is never enough preparation and training. There will always be something that you can do more.

“But am starting to back myself and my beliefs, and doubt my doubts,” he says, in projecting a positive attitude.

A diligent student of mental toughness, Bindra does channelise pressure for peak performance, but does not let his passion for an Olympic medal hinder his ability to strike the target and reach his goal.

“At the end of the day, it is a sport. I would like to go and just play,” he says.

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