new delhi gagan narang said the recognition he received on thursday for mentoring aspiring shooters will fuel his dream of carving out future olympiansin a massive honour and recognition the olympic bronze medallist shooters initiative gagan narang sports promotion foundation received the rashtriya khel protsahan puraskar on the national sports daygnspf an initiative started by narang and cofounder pawan singh in 2011 has been nurturing budding talent and providing them training in a systematic and structured and also education to help carve out future championsnarang received the trophy and citation from president ram nath kovindit is an honour and a responsibility said narang on the national honourthis award is a validation for our years of hard work and a responsibility going ahead to contribute more towards shaping up the future we took a small step in 2011 with an aim and vision to make shooting an accessible mainstream sport and help create more medallists today it seems we are headed in the right direction the padma shri addedgun for glory shooting academy formed under the aegis of gnspf has 16 centres spread across india and has over 50 shooters getting international level coachingthe academy shooters have won over 165 international medals and many of them are a regular feature in the national teamshooters are picked under a specialised talent search programme nurtured guided and trained under two unique programmes gfg shooting academy and project leapbesides shooting training they are also provided 100 per cent scholarships regular training with high performances coaches equipment support pellet and ammo testing and professional guidancewhen i started shooting my parents had to sell a piece of land to buy me a rifle that cost rs 15 lakh i began to do well and in 2010 i won four gold medals at the commonwealth games in delhi that helped me put things in perspective and i thought i had to give something back to the sporti wanted to make sure no parents had to sell their lands or houses to turn their kids into olympics champions and gun for glory is the stepping stone towards that said narangyoungsters need not give up on their dreams because of lack of finances or proper infrastructure besides it was also important that knowledge is passed and experience to the next generation pawan saidbesides the gun for glory initiative there is project leap which is designed especially to ensure a smooth transition for standout performers to the next levelhaving a mentor in gagan a shooter par excellence with a decorated trophy cabinet the foundation ensures it provides an allaround support to the upandcoming talentnarang who is preparing for qualification in his fifth olympics said it is his dream to produce future olympic medallists through the systemthe results have begin to show and our youngsters have won medals at the junior world cup and championship recently we already have 165 plus international medals we have a definite target going towards olympics 2024 and 2028funding though has been our