Gagan Narang comes to NRAI’s rescue

It seems the National Rifle Association of India’s (NRAI) hunt for a pistol coach has come to an end, as the association has sought the services of Anatoli Poddubny, coach of Gagan Narang’s academy Gun For Glory, for the national shooters.

The pistol shooting team has been without a coach since Aleksandr Melentiev backed out. The shooters, who did not have a coach since 2008, are now training under Poddubny, informed national coach and NRAI vice-president Sunny Thomas.

“We conducted a camp  and selection trials for top 25 shooters and the shooters practiced under Poddubny recently. We’ve decided to continue with him as he is the best option available,” said Thomas.

Poddubny hails from Ukraine and has trained the Russian shooting team, apart from training Melentiev himself.

Thomas added that Poddubny will train the shooters for the 2012 Olympics and other international championships before the showpiece event. “We will be conducting all our camps in Pune itself. So till the Olympics, Poddubny will  train the shooters there. Apart from that, we also have Asian Airgun Championship in October, so the coach’s immediate assignment will be to prepare the shooters for the championship,” he added.

Though the contract has not been signed by either of the parties, Thomas said the formalities will be complete by September 23.

“We will be holding trials-cum-conditioning camp for the national junior as well as senior shooters. So, before that, Poddubny will get the contract and everything will be on papers,” he said.
Talking more about the development, GFG director Pawan Singh said it is a big thing for his academy.

“We had started the academy in May this year with a dream of helping shooting sport in the country. We are proud of the fact that we’ve lent the services of coach Poddubny. I feel our purpose to serve the sport has served,” said Singh.