One of India’s shining lights in the world of sport apart from cricket has been an ace shooter, Gagan Narang. Supported by the Olympic Gold Quest for over ten years now, the Haryana born shooter has been making the country proud since he won the gold medal as a twenty-year-old at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games held in Hyderabad.
In the fourteen years since – the 34-year-old has won medals at every major competition including seven ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation). Narang is currently training for the Gold Coast event to be held later this year which will act as a qualifier for the upcoming Commonwealth Games next year.
The ace shooter is now turning mentor with his organisation the “Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation” tieing up with the Olympic Gold Quest for “Project Leap” which aims to identify and train young shooting talent in the country. The project has already sifted through 57 young shooters out of which 23 have been selected for advanced training. Two of these budding shooters Mahima Agarwal and Elanevil are already part of the junior national team and shot at the Junior World Championships in Germany earlier this year.
The Olympic Gold Quest is a dedicated endeavour with the ambition of training and supporting the best talents of the country so as to help them win gold medals in the Olympics.
Headed by the trio of Olympic Gold winning shooter Abhinav Bindra, former hockey captain Viren Rasquinha and badminton legend and coach, Pullela Gopichand, it has tasted success with the likes of MC Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal and Gagan Narang himself. Viren Rasquinha and Gagan Narang, who were also the first athlete to be supported by the Olympic Gold Quest spoke to Sportskeeda to tell us more about this initiative and the sport of shooting in general.
Shooting is widely thought of as an elite sport and rightly so, with state of the art guns costing in lakhs and coaching fees going into thousands per day. The very aim of Project Leap is to find athletes who can are suited towards the sport and take care of their other needs so that the focus remains on shooting.
As Gagan says, “The aim is to bring the sport from the classes to the masses”. In order to accomplish this, the project has entered into a sponsorship with German gun maker Walther to take care of the ammunition and gun needs of the trainees.
The shooter also speaks of concentrating on the overall education of the budding shooters rather than only concentrating on the shooting aspect of their lives.
“I am happy that we were able to realise our long term vision with the help of OGQ not only through funding but going much deeper into sports science, nutrition and recovery which are very important aspects for Junior shooters,” says the veteran shooter.
He also hopes that the next generation receives the same type of care and assistance provided by the OGQ at a time when he really needed it as it will help them achieve Vision 2024 which is to prepare Indian medal hopes to be in prime condition for the Olympics.
Also read: Gagan Narang's Project Leap to mentor 20 new shooting stars into champions
The Rio Olympics were a disappointment for the Indian shooting contingent which failed to win any medals at the event. It also made people realise that just individual brilliance cannot win an Olympic medal and it has to be a long term goal. Project Leap aims to do just that and the OGQ-GNSPF tie-up is trying to make sure that the mental, physical and technical levels of their wards are of the highest order.
As Viren Rasquinha put it, “The aim is to perfect an ecosystem where the talent can flourish”. Hence the need for a curriculum based system which aims to get the best out of the country’s talent.
A constant thorn in Indian shooter’s sides has been the problem of ammunition. Either they run out of it, or as Gagan Narang discovered in the run up to the Rio Olympic finals, the bullet does not have enough power to reach the target.
The shooter, who missed out on a finals berth due to the malfunction seemed to have moved on from fiasco and was of the opinion that such things happen. Explaining that each batch of ammunition had to be tested and bought separately from abroad, he said that factors like humidity, air pressure and other variables made a lot of difference and such things happened occasionally.
The Commonwealth Games are fast approaching and the 34-year old, whose career has been blighted by injuries of late is looking forward to competing in the event. He is planning to participate in the selection trials in New Delhi in a few days time with his main focus being on the three positions and Air Rifle events.
He will also start competing for and targeting the Olympic quota from next year. With the World Cup approaching next year, Gagan Narang will again be carrying the hopes of the nation as he tries to qualify for the Olympics through the event.
Also read: Gagan Narang provides platform for young guns to hone their shooting skills in Lucknow
