Gagan Narang secures quota for Rio Olympics
Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the 50m Rifle Prone event of the ISSF World Cup at Fort Benning in USA, thus securing a quota place in the the 2016 Rio Olympics. He shot 185.8 overall to get to the third place. The gold and silver went to Michael McPhail of the US and Ole Kristian Bryhn of Norway, respectively.
It all started in 2003 for Narang. He won the gold medal in the Afro Asian games in Hyderabad on 26 October 2003 in the men's 10m air rifle competition. This victory put him on the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) radar. In 2004, he finished 12th in the 10m Air Rifle event at the Athens Olympic Games.
He won an air rifle gold medal at the World Cup 2006. Gagan went on to beat Thomas Farnik of Austria's 703.1 with a 704.3 in the pains air rifle score in a pre-Olympic event in Hannover, Germany. At the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Gagan Narang won 4 gold medals.
In 2008, the shooter won gold in the men's 10m Air Rifle event, which was a world record score in the ISSF World Cup Final. Gagan made a world record by shooting a perfect 600 in the qualification round and scored 103.5 in the final round; thereby making a total score of 703.5.
In the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, Gagan Narang added 4 gold medals to the Indian tally. He shot a perfect 600 in the Men's 10 m air rifle singles event, making a new record. A silver medal was won at the Asian Games 2010. He along with Abhinav Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput went on to bag silver, in a team event.
Gagan Narang was honoured with the Padma Shree Award in 2010. In 2011, he won India's highest award for sports - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
In the 2012 London Olympics, Gagan Narang won a bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event. His total score of 701.1 made him the 1st Indian medal winner at the 2012 games. In the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Gagan Narang won his first silver in the men's 50-metre rifle prone silver.
