“Winning the gold this week, the biggest fear for me has been not to go down the road of guys who have won medals earlier and struggled to keep the intensity,” said Bindra at his house on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

“Fear has been a part of every athlete but I think I have all the faith to be relaxed. I realise that my own expectations are always higher than anyone else’s, so I set a higher standard than any journalist, coach or friend.”

Called shooterlemastare — German for shooting champion — by his coaches Gaby Buehlmann and Uwe Riesterer, Bindra even suggested that he might increase his shooting repertoire over the next few years by competing in 50m events along with his specialised 10m air-rifle.

“I don’t know yet. Who knows, I may take a shot at taking part in 50-metre air-rifle prone or three positions,” he said. As an afterthought, he added: “Gagan (Narang) has been taking part in all the three events. It will take me a while. but I would not mind being the one to do it in future.

Crying to sleep

“Right now, I am crying myself to sleep and I need time to relax.”

Bindra also reiterated that he had still not come to terms with all the attention being showered on him since his return from Beijing. “Quite a few people came up to me at Beijing airport, people who didn’t have Chinese accents, and knew who I was,” he said.

“But it’s nowhere near the attention I’m getting here. I don’t regard it as pressure, I look at it as support. I’d give up everything I’ve achieved so far, all the medals and all the money, if that meant just one gold at Beijing. Just one.”

It was the same kind of confidence that made Abhinav bounce back after a career-threatening back injury. Looking back, he explained the benefits of those months spent on the sidelines. “I had the choice to quit or keep playing and it was a hard decision,” he said.