New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) A strict fitness regime helped rifle-shooter Gagan Narang lose weight and win the gold medal in the three position event in the Chongwon World Cup in South Korea.
The 25-year-old Indian has been working out regularly for the past two-three months after he decided to focus on the three-position event.

The ‘considerable loss of weight’ helped him shoot well in kneeling and prone position en route to his gold as he became the first Indian to win two medals in a single ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) World Cup.

“I have been working hard on my fitness for past few months. I was quite worried as my scores were dropping in the standing position as the body setup was changing,” Gagan told IANS over phone from Chongwon.

According to reports received here, Gagan, who had won the bronze in his pet 10-metre air rifle event Friday, shot 1166 in the qualification round and 98 in the final, including two perfect 10s, to finish with a total of 1264 points for the gold.

Gagan shot 395 in prone, 382 in standing and 389 while kneeling in the qualification round for his tally of 1166.

“I didn’t shoot too well in standing here, but kneeling is coming up and that’s good. Kneeling position was troubling me since quite a long time and it shows an upward trend now,” he said.

Gagan also had to counter strong winds to win his fifth World Cup medal.

“The conditions were worse today. It was too windy and I had a tough time in adjusting to it,” he added.

South Korean Jinseop Han won the silver with a total score of 1261.9 (1165 qualifying+96.9 final) while the bronze went to Russian Alexei Kamenski, who shot a total of 1261.7 (1167 qualifying+94.7 final).

Among other Indians in the fray, Navy man Sanjeev Rajput finished sixth with 1258.7 (1160+98.7) while Sushil Ghalay couldn’t qualify for the finals as he finished 11th with a qualifying score of 1155.