From shooting down perfect 600s to featuring on Europe's top target shooting specialists' website, Gehmann.com, 10m air rifle exponent Gagan Narang is on a high.
But the 25-year-old Hyderabad marksman will be skipping his favorite event at the National Championships, which gets underway at Todupuzha (Kerala) from January 4.
Narang, currently training at Hyderabad under foreign coach Laszlo Szucsak, has decided not to take part in the event despite the fact that he recently broke the world record on way to clinching gold in the World Cup Finals at Bangkok.
This would mean that two of the country's — or world's — finest shots, Abhinav Bindra and Narang, would not slug it out for gold. Although Bindra would be inaugurating the championships, he would not be participating as he is taking a break after the Beijing Olympic triumph.
But Narang is not taking part in his pet event for other reasons. "I want to bag World Cup medals in 50m rifle prone and three position events as well…the more the better," said a confident Narang, who also had bagged the World Cup gold in 2006 at Guangzhou (China).
"I want to set some records in those two events as well. Since, there are no Olympic quota places to be won in 2009, I will stress on the 50m events," said Narang, adding that since he was now trying out a new rifle 'jacket and trouser', it wouldn't be possible for him to shoot perfect scores immediately.
{{/usCountry}}"I want to set some records in those two events as well. Since, there are no Olympic quota places to be won in 2009, I will stress on the 50m events," said Narang, adding that since he was now trying out a new rifle 'jacket and trouser', it wouldn't be possible for him to shoot perfect scores immediately.
{{/usCountry}}“I'm getting used to the jacket and trouser, so getting back the same scores could take some time," he said.