President Pratibha Patil [ Images ] and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] congratulated Abhinav Bindra [ Images ] on his "golden performance" in bagging India's [ Images ] first-ever individual gold medal at the Beijing [ Images ] Olympics [ Images ].

In separate messages, Patil and Singh lauded the achievement of 25-year-old Indian shooter, with the Prime Minister describing the feat as a "golden performance".

Bindra, who qualified in fourth place for the 10m air rifle final, shot an overall score of (596+140.5) 700.5 in a thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot.

His historic feat makes him India's first-ever individual gold medallist, bettering the silver medal feat of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore [ Images ] in Athens 2004.