India will field strongest team in badminton, shooting: Narang

Shooting and badminton are considered India’s best medal prospects in 2016 Olympics and ace shooter Gagan Narang and chief National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand today hoped that the country would field their biggest contingent in the two disciplines in Rio Games.

Narang, a bronze medallist in 2012 London Olympics, said he expects a good mix of young and experienced shooters from India in Rio Games. “There are plenty of new talent coming up in Indian shooting and I hope a mix of youth and experienced shooters will be representing India in Rio Olympics,” Narang said. “I hope India to get 5-6 more quota places. I expect a stronger shooting contingent than last Olympics,” he said. Gopichand, who is credited to have produced many champion shuttler such as Olympic medallist Sania Nehwal, too hoped a stronger badminton contingent in Rio de Janeiro. “Badminton in the last few years have done very well. It has shown a lot of promise. Hopefully, we will have the biggest contingent in Rio,” he said. 

“One-fourth of the qualification is still left from now till April end. So there is lot of time and lot of things can happen. So I don’t want to speculate (whether two Indian male shuttlers in Kidambi Srikkanth and Parupalli Kashyap will qualify for Rio). But I hope we have the strongest squad.”