Believe the athletes, Bindra to Sports Ministry

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra rued that he was treated by the Ministry of Sports as though he was in Beijing to cheat the government.

''I was treated by the Ministry as though I had gone there to cheat them,'' said Bindra, when asked how he was treated by the government in Beijing.

''Authorities needs to believe in the athletes,'' he told a news channel.

Bindra said for Olympic medals there needs to be a vision and a plan. Government spends money but if it is done according to plan it will be more effective.

Even though Abhinav is not known to be flamboyant his laurels seemed to rest easy on him as he replied that winning the world championship was more difficult though winning the Olympics was very satisfactory.

He admitted that the event had made him popular but added that in sports public memory is short and that it is the day's performance that counted.

Asked if he ever felt frustrated, Bindra candidly replied that he wept at times, but always found his inner voice propelling him to go on.

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