Abhinav Bindra was on Friday awarded the prestigious 'Blue Cross' which is the supreme honour awarded in the sport of shooting. This award is given by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) for outstanding contribution towards the sport of shooting.
ISSF conferred the award to Bindra while hosting their general assembly in Munich, Germany. With the Blue Cross, Bindra, who is the only Indian to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics, has now become the first Indian recipient of this honour.
Bindra has won several national awards to his name including the Arjuna Award, 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna' and the 'Padma Bhushan' to go with his medals in international events like Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
Bindra retired from the game after narrowly missing out on a medal in 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Bindra now looks after his state-of-the-art performance and rehab centres for budding athletes in Mohali and Delhi.
Bindra expressed his happiness on receiving the award.
He tweeted, "Extremely humbled to receive the @ISSF_Shooting's highest honour the Blue Cross at the General Assembly in Munich today."