Bindra mania as India honours an Olympic hero

New Delhi: Ecstatic India lavished praise and nearly $400,000 in cash on shooter Abhinav Bindra after he won the first solo Olympic title for the medal-starved nation.

Bindra, 25, won the men's 10m air rifle gold in Beijing on Monday to the disbelief and joy of a billion-strong country that has won just one medal in each of the last three Olympics.

The Sports Ministry is giving Olympic winners $70,900 each, while the cash-rich national cricket board will hand over $59,000 to Bindra as part of its campaign to back other sports.

His home state Punjab has given him $236,000, with more money coming from two other state governments and a state-run company.

In total, his gold has netted him more than $370,000.

Indian newspapers carried banner headlines hailing his win.

"Gold: One in a Billion," blared the headline in the Asian Age referring to India's population. The Times of India dubbed him "India's Goldfinger".

The Hindustan Times put it simply: "At last".

The video of Bindra's medal ceremony on YouTube received more than 70,000 views in the first 24 hours.

For Bindra himself, the achievement has yet to hit home. "It has all still not sunk in," the reticent shooter wrote in his blog www.abhinavbindra.blogspot.com.

"They have all been telling me what a huge achievement winning gold is," he wrote. "I realise that but frankly the enormity of the goodwill generated has caught me by surprise."

"Frankly, all the attention is a bit overwhelming," he added.

Mental strength

Newspapers wrote about the shooter's father, AS Bindra, a wealthy businessman who built an international standard range at home for his son's training. The Hindustan Times said his training included wall climbing to build mental strength.

As a teenager, he was 11th in Sydney in 2000 and then reached the final in Athens only to finish seventh.