In a heart-warming gesture, Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma has presented an autographed bat to ace shooter Gagan Narang. Firstpost reported the 29-year old wishing his fellow sportspersons who are all set to participate in the upcoming Rio Olympics.
Gagan Narang is one of the several medal prospects from the Indian contingent. He had previously won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. The air rifle shooter received a signed bat from Rohit with the words ‘Go for the Gold’ inscribed on it.
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Rohit enthused, “Being a sports person, we all know it is not easy to excel. Lot of dedication and hard work is required. And lot of willingness to improve every time you go out on the field. That's what we all have been doing. I am talking about cricket as I am a cricketer.”
The right-hander who is currently captaining Mumbai Indians in the IPL, added, “I can see a lot of kids sitting here and I am sure their goal is to represent India at some stage of any sport. I wish them all the best.”
Both Rohit and Narang inaugurated the Pune International Sports Expo (PISE) at the College of Agriculture Grounds in the city. The marksman affirmed that he was ready for the demanding sporting event.
Narang who had also scalped eight gold medals in the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games, asserted, “Winning medals for India is my job. But while I pursue my dream of yet another Olympic medal, this time in Rio, I want to reflect on the challenges that we face.”
The 32-year old observed, “We often talk about level playing field. While in corporate boardrooms this still is a Utopia. But in sports this is what we strive for. However, in a country like ours, democracy or level can only come once we think of opportunity or playing fields.”
While lauding the initiatives taken by the Sports Ministry, the celebrated shooter remained cautious about their projected figure of 10 medals in Rio and 25 during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He felt, “Surely that is a number that Government wants to achieve given the grants they give. But is it practical? It can become practical if there is democratization of sports and if Indian sports had many more stakeholders.”
The Chennai-born Narang noted, "In that backdrop, I see there is a great initiative here to give a shot in the arm to Indian sports at this sports exhibition as we need people like these to partner sporting needs of people who are not only at the top, the elite athletes but the ones starting out as well.”
Vishwajeet Kadam who had designed PISE stated, "Youngsters look up to people like Rohit Sharma and Gagan Narang and aspire to reach same heights in their chosen sports. Both have achieved high in their disciplines, but the youngsters need proper guidance and training to get anywhere closer to that and with PISE we are trying to give them everything on one stage.”
The Rio Olympics are scheduled to take place between 5th and 21st August.
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