Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation joins hands with Odisha government
New Delhi: The Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation (GNSPF), in its quest of result-oriented growth in shooting, will be setting up a High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar which will cater to the needs of Odisha growing sports panorama.
The proposed centre will have all necessary support, including funding, from the Odisha Government and the Aditya Birla Group to make the project viable, sustainable and accessible to take shooting to the next level.
GNSPF, the Odisha Government and the Aditya Birla Group signed an MoU to work in close coordination to scout raw talent, train and give exposure at the grassroots level.
The all-encompassing high-performance setup, with necessary scientific backing, will be a model centre for achieving desired results in international tournaments. The foundation, which believes in catching young kids so that they start early and mature gradually to meet the challenges posed to them in the sport. The foundation, which began its journey seven years ago in Pune, has spread its wings in eight states with 16 centres imparting training to 1500 children every year.
GNSPF’s academies boasts of 138 international medal winners, the highlight being the six medals its wards won in the Shooting World Championships with two world records. “I had to struggle and work my way up. When I look back, I realise if only I had started early I could have become a better shooter than I was,” said Gagan Narang, addressing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, guests and media personnel at the announcement of the upcoming project in Bhubaneswar.
The twice CWG gold medal winner also said that he and his team would make an optimum use of the facilities provided at the centre to help India to aim and double the number of medals for the forthcoming Olympics.
As a parting shot, Gagan said that the centre will re-write the sporting history of Odisha which has always been dominated by Hockey will look to encourage more talents and sportspersons. “Odisha will add a few names of shooters to its growing list of achievers with Olympic medals in the spot,” he concluded.