Ace marksman Abhinav Bindra, who shot down India's first gold in the 19th Commonwealth Games, said he was relieved that he gave the country the glory for the second time in two years after his Olympic triumph.
Bindra and Gangan Narang fired a Games record of 1193 points in men's 10m air rifle pairs event to give the country its first gold medal in the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday.
"After the Olympics I got a lot of love and affection from the people of India and I specifically wanted to shoot at the Commonwealth Games for India, to do well for the country and to give all Indians a little gift. That's (the gold) my gift today. I have an opportunity to shoot tomorrow and I will try to do my best tomorrow as well," said Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist.
"It's special to win a gold medal and it's for the first time I am participating in such a big event in India. It's absolutely fantastic. I am delighted," he added.
Bindra praised his partner Narang for the victory and expressed happiness that they were able to comer over the pressure and emerge victorious.
"I think Gagan shot really well, I was not too bad either. And yeah, there was a lot of stress on us, all eyes were on us. It made it much, much tougher, it wasn't the simplest of things on earth. It was hard work," Bindra told CNN-IBN.
Meanwhile Gagan Narang said shooting has achieved so much success in the recent past that it has become the number one sport of the country.
Gagan, along with Beijing Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, clinched the 10m air rifle gold and hours after the triumph at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, the unassuming shooter asserted that "Shooting is the number 1 sport in the country at the moment".
"If you go by medals shooters win in international competitions and there performance, then shooting is the number one," Gagan said.
"Unlike other sports, we cannot express our feelings in front of the media or fans, because shooting is like that," Gagan said.
"It's never a cakewalk, it's all about hard work. It takes a lot of energy, and above all, we are all shooting at home, so the expectations are tremendous," Gagan said.
Asked if he is looking to emulate Samresh Jung's feat of winning five gold medal the last edition of the games in Melbourne in 2006, Gagan said, "I am not thinking about that right now and just taking things one event at a time, one day at a time."
