Narang first to confirm ticket to London 2012

In the run up to the ISSF World Championships that is being held in Munich,Gagan Narang ran into a familiar turf of last minute glitches that has been the only constant in the Indian shooters career....

In the run up to the ISSF World Championships that is being held in Munich,Gagan Narang ran into a familiar turf of last minute glitches that has been the only constant in the Indian shooters career. From a malfunctioning rifle,to running around to get his visa in time,to shortage of ammunition,much of Narangs preparation schedule for the Munich competition went into rectifying his several shortcomings.

But the 27-year-old shook all these irritants including being overlooked for Khel Ratna to win Indias first quota for 2012 London Olympics,by winning a bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event on Saturday. Not many things were going my way,but at the end of the day I won a medal,so I am happy, Narang told The Sunday Express from Germany. Hopefully the preparations will not get hampered by these issues.

What makes this special is the fact that he was languishing at sixth spot before his last shot. His final shot,which was a 10,bailed him out. Italian Niccolo Campriani,who shot a total of 702.5,won the gold,while Hungarys Peter Sidi took silver. Talking about his final shot,Narang added: I was not stable in the final rounds,trying to shoot at the centre. But I found the mark.

Narang had tallied 597/600 in the qualifications to make the final rounds. Beijing gold medallist Abhinav Bindra finished 25th and failed to qualify for the final.

Narang though,as he claims,performs better when under pressure. For me,little bit of pressure is necessary to perform. If there is no competition I tend to relax a bit and shoot loose. It works well for me, he said.

With two more events left in the competition for the rifle ace,celebrations have to wait. When quizzed whether pressure was off after winning a medal,he said: Not really. Ill be tied in my other events for the next four days. Hopefully Ill do better than today. Earlier,Narang had shot his way to a bronze medal in 10m air rifle event at the Beijing World Cup and qualified for the World Championships.