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Abhinav Bindra’s autobiography is titled “A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold” and he seems obsessed indeed for an encore at the Rio Olympics in 2016. His swansong at Rio should ideally end on the podium and the ace shooter seems more determined than ever before to ensure the same.
Addressing the media during National Rifle Association of India’s flagship event for the 8th Asian Airgun Championship scheduled later this year, Bindra emphasized on how much the sport has grown over the last decade or so in our country and how it’s not beyond us to dream of medals at the Olympics or World Championships.
“The growth of Indian shooting has been tremendous. The talent pool that we have generated is amazing; also our junior program’s running really well- all of that goes on to show how much we have developed. Even the nationals are extremely competitive these days and that augurs really well for us,” Bindra said in the media interaction.
“The aim for the entire team is to win medals at Rio”
Talking about securing a quota spot for Rio 2016, he added “It’s a boon that the 5 of us have done it, but we need to keep doing well at all the qualifying competitions leading up to the event. I would try and retain my slot atleast till the end of this year and then focus on the games thereafter.
“The aim for the entire team is to obviously win medals (at Rio). Whereas I can’t speculate on how many medals we will win but we are going to put our best foot forward and hopefully a lot of us will return doing well.”
Also present at the event were other shooters who have qualified for the Olympics – Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai, Gurpreet Singh and Apurvi Chandela.
Echoing Bindra’s sentiments, Narang too emphasized on how our preparations are of the highest order, “We have come a long way; from running around for VISAs and not getting ammunition, things have become a lot more convenient for us. Technically too we are well supported now.”
Bronze medalist from the London games, Narang has been struggling with his fitness off late but he assured he is fine now and should be in premium shape ahead of the World Championships, “We have a good amount of time to prepare and I am sure we will do better than what we have in the past.
“Here’s hoping that we do indeed emulate what he have done in the past; shooting as Abhinav hopes will soar to greater heights in our country, needless to say, a chunk of medals at the upcoming Airgun Championships and in Rio next year shall serve that ambition really well,” Narang concluded.
