Gagan Narang Biography 
Gagan Narang is an Indian sportsman and Olympic award winner in 2012 Olympics. In men’s 10 m air rifle event held at 2012 Olympics at London, he came out with bronze medal with a score of 701.1 on 30th July 2012. It is the eighth individual medal in the Olympic Games history of India.
He was born in Chennai on 6th May 1983 and his ancestors belonged to Samalkha in Panipat district in Haryana. His grandfather then moved from Panipat to Hyderabad. His parents are Bhimsen Narang and Amarjit. Though Gagan Narang was born in Chennai, he was raised in Hyderabad. He touched the gun for the first time at his age of six for shooting down balloons at Chennai Marina Beach carnival. His prowess at shooting was well brought out at that age itself which he sharpened later.
He got his first gold medal in the Afro Asian Games 2003 that was held in Hyderabad. He bagged gold medal both in World Cup 2006 and in World Cup 2010. In 2006, he became the highest scorer in the world in air rifle shooting with 704.3 points. He was shot to fame when he scored 600/600 in 10m air rifle at World Cup match final held at Bangkok. His 703.5 points in the 2008 ISSF World Cup Final was a world record.
His achievements and contribution in rifle shooting won him the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shree Award in 2010. He received the highest sports award of India from the then President Pratibha Patil on 29th August 2011. But before that he was denied Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award thrice and this he felt as a great demotivation which he expressed publicly. He indeed wanted to skip the 2010 Commonwealth Games held at New Delhi on these grounds but due to the pressure of his family and friends, he decided to participate and won 4 gold medals in that.
He made many world records and in 2010 Asian Games he got a silver medal and in 2012 London Olympics he opened his medal score with a bronze in 10 m air rifle event. Haryana Chief Minister Boopinder Singh Hooda has announced a cash award of one crore rupees for Gagan Narang for his achievements in Olympics.
In the Olympic game, he scored 701.1 standing third and in the qualifying round also he was able to get the third place with 598. In the same event, Alin George Moldoveanu of Romania won the gold medal with 702.1 and Niccolo Campriani of Italy won the silver with 701.5. There was a tough competition for the third place between him and his Chinese rival and his hopes to win the silver medal was thwarted by the Italian who fired 10.4 at the last shot. The sweats and the pellets he had spent over a decade had won him his recognition at last.
Published: N/A
Updated: July 30, 2012
