Gagan fails to fire, seeks changes in system

When Abhinav Bindra won the historic gold in 10m air rifle, Gagan Narang was quietly watching from the sidelines, pondering over his last shot that cost him a place in the final.

When Abhinav Bindra won the historic gold in 10m air rifle, Gagan Narang was quietly watching from the sidelines, pondering over his last shot that cost him a place in the final.

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Was it nervousness? Narang did not have an answer. He was so crestfallen that he did not even want to reply. He knew he too had a chance in his pet event, 10m air rifle, but he squandered it. That was on August 11.

Almost a week later, he is yet to recover. It's not easy for a shooter to make a comeback. On Sunday, Narang started off well in the 50m 3position, till he knelt for his last round. Till then he was fourth in the ranking list.

"Kneeling has been my weakest. I did fire well," said Narang smiling. "This is shooting and anything is possible. What if I shot better in my pet round, standing, and what if I shot better in prone. I would have been in the final where anything is possible. So there's no use thinking about if's and buts. Narang managed a 13 th place with 1167 points, while teammate Sanjeev Rajput scored 1162 for a 26th finish at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall. "I will have to leave this behind and work hard for the next Olympics in 2012," said Narang.

Surendra Singh finished the energy sapping 10,000m race at the 26th place at the Bird's Nest stadium. Surendra clocked more than 11 seconds off his personal best timing of 28:02.89 — also the national record — which he had clocked last month to qualify for the Beijing Games.