Abhinav Bindra, Raninder Singh bestowed with ISSF Diploma of Honour medals

India’s long-time poster boy for shooting Abhinav Bindra has been awarded the ISSF Diploma of Honour medal for his achievements in shooting over the years. Along with Bindra, National Rifle Association of India chief Raninder Singh was also bestowed with the same award at the recently concluded General Assembly meeting of the international body in Munich, Germany.

Bindra, who is the only Indian to bag an individual gold medal, took to Twitter to express his gratitude as he claimed he was “extremely humbled” by the honour. In addition to that, NRAI chief, Raninder Singh, has also become the first Indian to be elected as one of the four vice-presidents of the ISSF.

The 51-year-old former trap shooter bagged 161 votes to occupy the highly sought after post, while Kevin Kilty of Ireland received 162 votes, USA’s Robert Mitchell got 153 votes and Republic of China’s Wang Yifu was re-elected with 146 votes in Munich.

In 2017, Raninder was re-elected president of the NRAI for a four-year term. In 2014, Singh had got 22 out of 25 votes in the General Assembly meeting at Munich, which made him the first Indian to be elected as a member of the international body. Raninder was presented with the diploma and medal by the outgoing and longest-serving president of the ISSF, Olegario Vazquez Rana, who was the leader for 38 years.