Narang to mentor 135 shooters
Seeking to turn out 10 shooters good enough to chase medals in the 2024 Olympics, Games medallist Gagan Narang will mentor 135 young shooters for advanced training, as part of his ambitious Project Leap initiative.
The shooters trained at Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation- backed project are making impression at the international arena.
The project in its second year has initiated annual trials for shooters from across the country with 176 applying and 130 shortlisted for trials currently underway at the state- of- the- art ‘ Gun for Glory’ shooting academy in Pune.
This will be the first time that this trials have been thrown open for shooters in the under- 21 age category.
Those selected will be trained by Slovakian rifle coach Anton Belak and South Korean pistol coach Kim Seonia and mentored by the Narang.
“We initiated Project Leap with an ambitious goal of finding India its 10 best shooters as part of Vision 2024,” Narang said in a statement.
The London Olympic bronze medallist and co- founder added, “We knew the potential of the This will be the first time that this trials have been thrown open for shooters in the under- 21 age category project but had to start modest and hence restricted it for Gun for Glory shooters in year one; the results have been phenomenal.
“Backed with the success of last year we have rolled out the project for all youth and junior shooters with the hope of unearthing more talent who have been untapped so far.”
Project Leap, which is GNSPF’s most ambitious project yet, was initiated last year and has already produced shooters like Elavenil Valarivan, who won gold at the recently concluded ISSF Junior World Cup and also registered a new qualification world record.
The shooters have also helped the national junior team clinch eight international and 19 national medals. Four shooters have also represented the country at various international tournaments in the last one year, the statement added.