CWG shooting: Narang rues missing his perfect 600 score

NEW DELHI - Ace shooter Gagan Narang, who along with Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra Tuesday won the gold in the 10- metre rifle pairs event at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, is unhappy he fell two points short of his world record score of 600 points.

“The score of 600 was always playing in my mind,” Narang told IANS at the Karni Singh Shooting Range soon after winning the gold, first for India in 19th edition of the Games.

“But everyday you can’t get a perfect score. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will compete in the individual event and I still have a chance,” the world No. 3 shooter said.

Narang, a double world record holder, shot an outstanding sequence of 99, 100, 100, 99, 100 and 100 for a total of 598 points, two points less than his world record perfect score of 600, scored in the World Cup final in 2008.

“I am improving in the 10 metres. Today I shot 54 perfect 10s. Let us see if I can improve it tomorrow in the individual category,” he said.

Asked if it was easy for him, Narang said: “It’s never a cakewalk, it’s all about hard work. It takes a lot of energy, and above all, we are all shooting at home, so the expectation is tremendous.”

Narang said he is not trying to emulate the feat of Samresh Jung, who earned the sobriquet of ‘Gold Finger for his five gold medals at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.

I am not thinking about that right now and just taking things one event at a time, one day at a time, he said.

National shooting coach Sunny Thomas said the popularity of shooting sports has increased due to the success of Bindra and Gagan.

Thanks to these two guys, the profile of shooting has gone up. The media has started following shooting because of Abhinav and Gagan, said Thomas.

We have done a good job. But more than medals, we are concerned about performance. If we perform well, medals will follow, he said.