Indians in London Olympics : Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar

It is an Olympian leap for an Indian Shooter. It is a saga of formidable performance. Narang has bagged a bronze in London Olympics when Abhinav Bindra’s failure darkened the firmament. Vijay gifts Olympic silver.

The Olympic history of India is enriched by Gagan Narang's success in finishing third at the Royal Artillery Barracks range. It has spurred celebrations among the Indian diaspora here and the countrymen back home. It was the third time in row that Indian shooters had won medals at the Olympics. Double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver in 2004, Bindra gave India a historic gold in Beijing, and now Narang has bagged the Bronze in London Olympics.

Narang’s success has added to India's less than impressive medal count - which now stands at 21 comprising nine golds, four silvers and eight bronzes - in Olympics history.Narang, 29, participating in his third Games, had a total score of 701.1.

It is unfortunate and unexpected too that Bindra will perform so miserably and shot only 594 to finish 16th out of 47 candidates. Indian shooters had won medals at the Olympics in all the three linings. Double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver in 2004, Abhinav Bindra gave India a historic gold in Beijing, and now Narang has bagged a bronze in London. Bindra’s luck deserted him during the qualification round of the 10 metres air rifle event. It was needed that other Indians should rise high.

There was a ray of hope as Narang lived up to the expectations in the qualifying round. As Indian athletes failed one after another at the London Games 2012, Gagan Narang gave the fight as he shot bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event.

Vijay Kumar won silver in the Olympic 25m rapid fire pistol . This 27 year old army subedar has a reputation for keeping low profile despite his 13 international gold medals. He after getting the silver medal felt elated:” It really means a lot, it is my highest achievement to win a medal in an Olympic Games.” Vijay had lots of medals, but the Olympic medal was missing.

Narang’s elation was still greater. He said that the ‘stone’ was growing heavier by the minute. Chances were hanging by the thread. Probably Narang was thinking that he had narrowly missed a medal earlier at the Beijing Games. As the crowd cheered for Abhinav Bindra at the Beijing Games, Narang stood in utter disappointment having missed the podium by the margin of one point.

This time in London, Narang was able to stage a majestic come back with a formidable performance and had outdone the best in the business to end India’s drought at 2012 Olympics.That he was a fighter althrough is clear from the records of his performances. Gagan Narang won Gold in the men`s 10 metre air rifle event with a world record score in 2008 ISSF World Cup Final. He also broke Austria`s Farnik Thomas`s record, set in the 2006 World Cup final in Granada, Spain.

Earlier, Narang won four gold medals in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. He is also a two-time world record setter. Soon after his brilliant performance at the CWG games, he followed that up with two silver in the Guangzhou Asian Games a month later.

Vijay also had a lots of medals. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he had won two gold medals, the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol competition and the pairs competition in the same event together with Pemba Tamang. The same year, he won a bronze medal in the Asian Games despite actually finishing fourth because of a rule that prevented China from winning all three medals. The next year, he finished second at the Asian Championship in 25 meter center fire pistol. He also won a silver medal at the 2009 ISSF World Cup Beijing in rapid fire pistol, where he was defeated by Keith Sanderson by 0.1 points.