That’s what Abhinav Bindra achieved as Telegraph reports:

Abhinav Bindra overcame back pain to become the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb on Monday. Dr Karni Singh’s silver in 1962 was the best by an Indian in a World Championship meet before Monday.

That no Indian had ever won a gold before is not surprising. After all, the shooting boom in India is not very old. The Indian shooting contingent for Beijing is looking stronger with each passing day. We have the likes of Narang, Samaresh Jung, Rathore and young guns like Bindra.

We disappointed tremendously last time in the Olympics but it will be shocking if we don’t win a few medals via shooting in Beijing. Here’s hoping the shooting contingent does India proud and I don’t have to write some thing on this topic again.

Update: Read Indian Express’ Navneet Singh write on Bindra coming back from the dead.

India’s ever increasing presence in the world shooting stage can be epitomised by Gagan Narang becoming World Number 1 in 10 metre Air Rifle.Narang won gold in the World Cup just after the Commonwealth Games as well. What’s more, he is just 22. Reports DNA:

Narang recently won a gold in the same event at the ISSF World Cup in Guangzhou and booked a berth in the Beijing Olympics. The feat propelled him to a whopping 18 places in the rankings and he becomes third Indian shooter after Anjali Bhagwat and Rajyavardhan Rathore to reach the top spot in the world.

India performced commendably in the Commonwealth Games (The Sportstarhad a good review which can be read here) and the Shooting World Cup. Samaresh Jung has called for liberal policies for importing shooting equipment needed. The government has already been encouraging after Rathore won silver in the Olympics in double trap as mentioned here.

The shooters are here. They cannot be ignored any longer. It is very heartening to see.

Indian Samaresh Jung has been adjudjed the best athlete of the Commonwealth Games for his performances. He now heads for the Shooting World Cup.

India has been steadily improving in shooting. The government has been supportive off late. I spoke about it here. It is not just a one off like say a P.T.Usha in Athletics. There is a bunch of shooters coming up. Vishwanathan Anand started the Chess revolution. Rajyavardhan Rathore may well be looked back upon as the trigger who helped India become an international force in shooting.