Prez, PM congratulate Bindra

Pratibha Patil and Manmohan Singh congratulated Abhinav Bindra for his "golden performance" in bagging India's first-ever individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday congratulated Abhinav Bindra for his "golden performance" in bagging India's first-ever individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

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In separate messages, Patil and Singh lauded the achievement of 25-year-old Bindra with the Prime Minister describing the feat as a "golden performance".

Bindra, who qualified fourth for the 10m air rifle event, shot an overall score of (596+140.5) 700.5 in a thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot.

Bindra's historic feat makes him India's first-ever individual gold medallist, bettering the silver medal feat of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens 2004.