'I am absolutely delighted'

Having captured his first individual medal in his swansong Asian Games, ace shooter Abhinav Bindra said he felt really happy about breaking the jinx.

Bindra, who secured the country’s first and only individual Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games in 2008, surprisingly, had managed just a team 10M Air Rifle team silver at the continental bash, the medal coming at Guangzhou in 2010.

He, however, took the monkey off his back in fine fashion, nailing the bronze in his pet event here on Tuesday.

“I am absolutely delighted with what I have achieved,” the 31-year-old told the waiting Indian media. “There is no question of relief, I did a good job,” he added when asked whether he was relived to have ticked off a box that was lying vacant in his resume.

“Relief is not the emotion I am feeling at the moment. I feel very happy. I think I shot very well in the finals. I shot very well in the competition. I worked very hard and had a fine day.

“I am tired, want to eat something and want to go home. I will be checking out of the village today itself. The Asian Games is officially over for me. Perhaps, I will catch it on TV.”

Bindra on Monday created a buzz when he tweeted saying he would henceforth cut down drastically on competitions, opting to take aim only at World Cups with 2016 Rio Olympics being his only aim.

Clarifying his tweet that led to various interpretations, Bindra said he just wanted everyone to know about his feelings. “I just wanted to bring out my feelings to the public eye. You complain I don’t talk much. Here I am giving information. Is there a problem?” he asked.

Although the golden man of Indian shooting won’t be seen busy in the range like before, Bindra said he has enough on his plate to keep himself busy. “I will not have a free time as a challenging life awaits me. I will train twice a week. Let me see how it goes as I have never been a hobby shooter.

“On October 6, I am going to Bangalore to do some work with my foundation where we are giving scholarships for several shooters. We are going to conduct a workshop for them.”