Gagan Narang was unlucky to miss out on a medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. However, there was no denying him four years later.
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Shooting is a sport that has brought India it’s third most number of Olympic medals in the history of the Games. In all, five Indian shooters have won medals at the Olympics. Indeed, India’s sole individual gold medal came in that sport thanks to Abhinav Bindra. And the sport would see another medal winner come to the fore at 2012 in London. This time it wasn’t Bindra who stood atop the podium, but it was Gagan Narang. Narang had been unlucky to miss out on a medal four years prior at Beijing. However, there was no denying him four years later.
We look back at how one of India’s finest shooters finally became an Olympic medal winner.
Going into the 2008 Games at Beijing, Narang was one of the medal favourites for India. He was in fine form too – he won gold at the Air Rifle World Cup in 2006. He even attained a score of 704.3 at a pre-Olympic event in Germany.
Form and momentum can be game-changers in sport and Narang had both on his side. He had also qualified for the 2008 ISSF World Cup Final after winning Air Rifle gold at the World Cup in China in early 2008.
Yet it wasn’t to be at Beijing. A countback of scores saw Narang miss out of the final in the men’s 10m air rifle category. To make things worse, he saw Bindra win gold at Beijing. The whole scenario was heartbreaking for him.
“It was tough. I shot an 8.9 in my 42nd shot and the difference between an 8.9 and 9 is a hair’s breadth,” he admitted afterwards.
“I was in a state of shock and depression. When I came back home, I did not touch the gun and I would have these emotional outbursts,” he added.
“I could not sleep for a couple of days and I would wake up in my sleep.”
However, the disappointment did not last long. Barely a week after his exit at Tokyo, he was back in the shooting range.
Fate is a funny thing. Four years prior, all eyes had been on Bindra as Narang crashed out before the final round. Now in London, the reverse was true; Narang was in the spotlight as India’s only medal hope in shooting after Bindra crashed out before the final round.
However, shooting is a sport determined by the finest of margins. It is a cliche often used for elite level sport but is true in this case. A 0.1 difference can be what ensures you go home with a medal or no medal.
The final of the men’s 10m air rifle event was a tense one. It required a lot of skill and temperament from the shooters. To make things harder, the rankings of the shooters changed after every single shot.
In an ideal world, a shooter builds a decent lead at the start then defends it. But the margins were so slim here that every shooter had to be on his game at every shot.
In the end, Narang kept his cool – and also kept China’s Wang Tao at bay. The Chinese shooter had been hot on Bindra’s heels throughout but Narang finished ahead of him in third.
Gagan Narang finished behind Romania’s Alin George Moldoveanu and Niccolo Campriani of Italy. The relief was immense; this was India’s first medal at the 2012 Games.
Afterwards, Narang admitted there was plenty of pressure but that it helped him perform better.
“There was a lot of pressure from expectations. I would not say pressure is bad; in my case, it helped me perform. But the pressure on me was actually building from the time I lost out on shooting at the finals in Beijing on countback,” he had admitted to the Olympic Channel.
“I had to go back to the drawing board and re-chart my Olympic journey. At every stage, I recalibrated my skills.”
