New Delhi: Ace Indian shooter Gagan Narang wants his London Olympics bronze medal to go on a nationwide tour as he believes the medal belongs to the country and it also would inspire the next generation to embrace the sport.
"I want my medal to travel across the country so that it inspires the coming generation,” Gagn said during a felicitation function organised by Manav Rachna International University.
Narang who won the bronze medal in the 10 m Air Rifle event at the recently concluded Olympics wants the whole nation to touch and see the medal..
Idea of putting his medal on the display struck while he read the Olympic motto which said “Inspire A Generation.”
“I was in the bus when I read the Olympic motto which said Inspire A Generation. So I want the entire population to see and touch my medal. The medal belongs to the whole nation and I want to inspire,” he added.
The 29 year old shooter however has not thought of a plan as to how to go about it but then said that he would soon chalk out a plan on that.
Narang’s family had to sell a plot of land during Gagan’s early shooting days to buy a good rifle and he agreed to the fact that shooting is a ‘class’ sport but then wants to change it into a ‘mass’ sport.
The Khel Ratna awardee who pioneers the Gun for Glory academy in Pune said that it was very necessary for the sport have good exposure at the grass-root level as that would help the sport to develop in the country.
Giving a special mention to Gun for Glory academy and the shooting range at the Manav Rachna he said these kinds of facilities is the need of the hour for the game and he would involve himself with such kind of initiatives as far as possible to take the game to its zenith.
Answering the stereotype question of why only six medals when India has a population of 1.2 billion he said, “India does not have a sporting culture. If we take China’s example they end up with so many medals because they have sports deep rooted in their culture. In order to win more medals we would require 100 Sushil Kumar or 100 Vijender Singh. We need to have many options and develop and make the competition so fierce amongst ourselves that an athlete who is ranked 5th or 6th in the country can also come back with medal,” he added.
“The initiative (to produce champions) has to start from schools and a sport culture has to be imbibed. We need more corporate support and if the system supports, then the road becomes a lot easier and as a player one can then pursue their targets without bothering about anything,” said Narang.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News Network
