Shooter Narang to launch talent development project

The Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation (GNSPF) has unveiled ambitious plans to train and nurture 20 young and talented shooters from different parts of the country and turn them into international champions.

Titled 'The Project Leap', it is founded and driven by 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang. The selected shooters will be mentored by top international coaches and will receive training at state-of-the-art facilities, including sports science support for a full year.

"We identified 55 prospective shooters and put them through an elaborate evaluation process to select the 20 best ones among them," Gagan said in a statement.

"We looked for various skill-sets that are required for sustained high-level performances in world-level competitions," he added.

'Project Leap' is a multi-phased research designed to not only train and mentor selected shooters but also to generally improve the performances of Indian shooters.

Gagan's 'Gun For Glory' academies identified the 55 shooters and he personally supervised each centre's selection process to handpick the best prospects.

The project is part of the Gagan Narang mentoring programme with Vision 2024 which aims to clinch 10 medals in shooting for India at the 2024 Olympics.

"It has taken us a couple of years to bring together all stakeholders and find the right ingredients for Project leap. It is now in its truest sense a leap for Indian Shooting. We are confident that we will be able to tap and nurture the vast talent in our country and will help in their transforming them into world class shooters," Gagan said.

Former Indian shooting coach and director of GNSPF Pawan Singh expressed delight at the launch of the programme and believes that it will usher in a new leaf in the history of the sport in India.

"The selected shooters will undergo specialized training programmes in their respective Gun For Glory academies. They will be provided with international standard equipment for daily practice. Through the year, the youngsters will attend different camps as well, with each camp lasting 12 days, in which equal weightage will be given to mental and physical preparation and technical refinement," Pawan said.

--IANS

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