Aiming to produce 10 shooters good enough to chase medals in the 2024 Olympics, ace rifleman Gagan Narang is set to mentor 135 young shooters for advanced training, as part of his ambitious Project Leap initiative.
The shooters trained at Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation (GNSPF)-backed Project Leap are making an impression at the international arena.
The Project in its second year has initiated its annual trial for all talented shooters from across the country. 176 shooters had applied and 130 have been selected for the trial, which is currently underway at the state-of-the-art ‘Gun for Glory’ shooting academy, here.
This will be the first time that this trial has been made open for all shooters in the country in the under-21 age category. The final selected shooters will be trained by Slovakian rifle coach Anton Belak and South Korean pistol coach Kim Seonia and mentored by Narang.
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“We initiated Project Leap with an ambitious goal of finding India its 10 best shooters as part of Vision 2024,” Narang said. The London Olympic bronze medallist and co-founder added, “We knew the potential of the project, but had to start modest and hence restricted it for Gun for Glory shooters in year one; the results have been phenomenal.”
“Backed by the success of 2017, we have rolled out the project for all youth and junior shooters with the hope of unearthing more talent who have been untapped so far.”
Project Leap, which is GNSPF’s most ambitious project yet, was initiated in 2017 and has already produced shooters like Elavenil Valarivan, who won gold at the recently concluded ISSF Junior World Cup and also registered a new qualification world record.
The shooters, who were part of the elite mentoring, have also helped the Indian junior team clinch eight international medals and 19 national medals. Four shooters have also represented the country at various international tournaments in the last one year.
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