Chandigarh, August 16 : Country''s first ever solo gold medallist in Olympics Abhinav Bindra, who won 10m air rifle event at the ongoing Beijing Olympics got a rousing welcome in hometown Chandigarh in Punjab on Saturday.

Large number of people were waiting for him outside his residence.

Abhinav’s house was embellished with flowers so as make it befitting for the welcome of country''s new found sporting icon.

Expressing happiness over his son''s achievement proud father A. S. Bindra said, “This is certainly the best moment of my life as we have got a gold medal for the country, who was starving for a gold medal for more than hundred years. I am proud of it as it shows that yes! We can also win gold medals in the Olympics.”

The Sports Ministry is giving Olympic winners 70,900 dollars each, while the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will hand over 59,000 dollars to Bindra as part of its campaign to back other sports.

Bindra has been awarded nearly 400,000 dollars in cash for his achievement. He comes from an exceedingly wealthy family, which has allowed him to spend lavish money on training for his sport.

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

The video of Bindra''s medal ceremony on YouTube received more than 70,000 views in the first 24 hours, showing what the rare sporting success meant to Indians at home and abroad.

Bindra had been fourth after qualifying but had a brilliant final round and he hit a near perfect 10.8 on his last shot to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who fell to bronze with a poor final shot who stumbled in his last shot allowing China''''s Zhu Qinan, the favourite, to take the silver.

India had only won four individual medals, none of them gold, since sending their first team to the Summer Games in 1928.

The men''''s hockey team has won the Olympic tournament eight times, but the last time was in 1980. (ANI)