Beijing: Abhinav Bindra's gun was tampered with before the final of 10m air rifle event which the ace marksman won to give India its first ever individual Olympic gold medal, top officials with the Indian contingent said in Beijing on Wednesday.
The sightscreen fitted with the gun had been altered before the final and it was only because of his unflappable nature that Bindra went on to win the medal, Deputy Chef-the-Mission Baljit Singh Sethi, who is also the Secretary General of the National Rifle Association of India said.
"We did not know it but after the final, he (Bindra) told us that he found his gunsight altered. But he is a very cool boy and has lot of patience. Lesser mortals would have panicked but he maintained his cool and went on to win the gold," Sethi said.
Bindra had earlier told a newspaper that between the qualifying and final sessions, he went to the rest room and his German coach Gabriela Buehlmann also went out for a smoke and that was probably the time when the unattended gun was fiddled with.
Sethi, meanwhile, saw no point in starting the blame game and said, "No complaint has been filed about the incident."
"I don't think that helps. Actually, you cannot blame anyone for it's your duty to take care of your gun. He was the only Indian to qualify, so there were shooters only from other countries in that room."
Asked if the Indian contingent management made a complaint about the incident, Sethi said, "No, because it was his duty to attend the gun. You cannot blame anyone for that."
Shooting coach TS Dhillon said this was not the first time that such things happened.
"It happened earlier also. In Abhinav's case, during the sighter series, he was suddenly scoring as low as 4.2 before gradually scores picked up. It took him 40 clicks to reach the centrestage. And he had just three minutes.
"It's another matter that he went on to defy the setback and win the gold, it only goes on to prove how good a shooter he is," Dhillon said.
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary General and former shooter Randhir Singh, who is here in the capacity of an International Olympic Committee member, said he had not received any complaint about the incident.
"How can I react to something when there is no formal complaint about it?" he said.
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