Out of excitement, Gagan forgets kit!

The excitement of winning the 10m air rifle bronze made Gagan Narang and his Kazakh coach, Stanislav Lapidus, forget that they had to deposit the kit bag — containing a jacket, trousers and other equipment — in the storage room. Instead, they left it at the range and went back to the Games Village. Saurabh Duggal reports.

The excitement of winning the 10m air rifle bronze made Gagan Narang and his Kazakh coach, Stanislav Lapidus, forget that they had to deposit the kit bag — containing a jacket, trousers and other equipment — in the storage room. Instead, they left it at the range and went back to the Games Village.

“At the Village, we realised that we had left the kit bag at the range. Only one coach is allowed to assist the player in the playing arena. Lapidus was there with Gagan during the final. When I inquired about the bag, Lapidus told me he had no idea. It seems there was a communication gap between the two that led to the slip-up,” said national coach Sunny Thomas.

Nervous moments
“In the evening, I went to the range but couldn’t find the bag. I then contacted the range officer and we eventually found it outside the range. For a moment, I became nervous because Gagan has to wear that jacket and trousers in his two remaining events,” said Thomas.

On Tuesday morning, Narang’s 50m rifle training got delayed by half an hour as the toolbox, he needed to make adjustments to his rifle, was missing from his bag. “I went to the armoury where I had deposited the kitbag on Monday and inquired about the toolbox, but nobody seemed to know.

Probably, Gagan had left it somewhere at the range and forgotten to collect it after the finals. Finally, I found it with the lost-and-found department,” said Thomas.

“Thankfully, we got everything in place and Gagan could begin his training. Otherwise,

it would have been an unnecessary hassle, which could have affected his performance in the remaining events,” he added.