Gagan Narang battling for perfect feel

PUNE: Last month, former India rifle coach Stanislav Lapidus wandered on the streets of Rio de Janeiro to look for a store that sold needles.
The Kazakh coach, who is now personal coach of Gagan Narang, finally got one after a two-hour hunt.
The needle was needed to stitch Narang's jacket on the eve of his 50m rifle prone match in the World Cup. Though Narang missed the final after he shot with poor ammo, the London Olympics bronze medallist got his jacket's fitting back.
On Thursday, after the inauguration of Pune International Sports Exhibition, Narang was asked how important his jacket is to him.
"My jacket looks so jaded that when I go abroad to participate in an event, jacket manufacturing companies offer to sponsor me a new jacket," he replied in jest. "But it is not about the money, it is about the confidence and feel you get from it (jacket)," he added, without disclosing that he has been wearing the same jacket since 2008.
Narang has been training with Lapidus in Moscow, where the Russian Olympic team also train. He feels training in Russia is helping him prepare better for the Rio Games. "The facilities there are very good. And then, it is always good to train and compete with top shooters of the world," said Narang, who got a bat with a message 'Go for gold' from cricketer Rohit Sharma during the function.
Narang will be participating in three events - 10m air rifle, 50m prone and 50m 3 positions - at the Rio Games. He accepts it won't be easy for him to maintain his form in all three.
"Balancing three events will be a big task. The challenge is to peak in all three events during a particular period. I am planning my training in a way that I peak in all three events," said Narang, who fires 200-400 shots on an average during his training every day.
During his prone match in Rio World Cup, Narang missed the chance in the final after firing a poor bullet that gave him a zero.
"Earlier we would test ammo once in a couple of months, but now every batch needs to be tested before each tournament," he said.
A light-weight bullet generally is the one with less gun powder. Weighing each bullet before the match is a tedious process but he doesn't want to take a chance.
"Finally after testing the ammo, when I am confident about the batch I am going to shoot, I will weigh the bullets before the tournament," he said.
Narang will be in the country for a week before leaving for Munich, where he will participate in the ISSF World Cup from May 19 to 27.