Commonwealth Games hero Samaresh Jung has set his eyes on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and aims to seal his quota berth for the mega event before the end of this month.
"The next opportunity for securing the Olympic spot will come in the World Cup in Brazil later this month and I am looking forward to achieving it," Jung said.
The first chance to make it to Beijing came at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Guangzhou, but Gagan Narang was the only Indian marksman to grab a berth there.
"I am able to touch the required marks in training even now but need to do so when it really matters," he said.
"Once I get the quota berth, I will be able to concentrate solely on my shooting."
Jung captured five gold medals, along with a silver and bronze, at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and was adjudged the best athlete in the 18th edition of the mega event.
In fact, his attempt to equal the record of the highest number of gold medals at a single Games, held by Australian swimmers Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill, was jeopardized by his gun getting jammed during the Standard Pistol event.
"There were two malfunctions of my gun and, as a result, I could not fire and drew blanks on the score sheet," Jung said.
But the ace shooter still has not got a suitable replacement for the erring gun.
"It will take about six months to get another gun. Till then, I will have to carry on with a borrowed one," the Delhi-based shooter said.
Jung said the shooting contingent did not prepare with the Commonwealth Games in mind and was instead looking forward to the Doha Asian Games later this year.
"Winning a medal at the Asiad is almost akin to one at the Olympics as several of the top shooters in the world come from this region."
He said the Melbourne mega event provided an opportunity to test the shooters in an environment of high pressure.
"We took it as a challenge and wanted to see how we perform in testing conditions. We had won a lot of medals in Manchester and wanted to equal that mark. In the end, we managed to improve on the previous Commonwealth Games performance."
Indian shooters had captured 14 gold, seven silver and three bronze medals in 2002 and bettered the mark with a tally of 16-7-4 this time around.
Jung himself had contributed with two gold and three silver medals to the Indian tally at the previous Commonwealth Games.
Praising the present batch of Indian marksmen as those with plenty of potential, he predicted that many more medals at international meets are in the offing.
"The shooters just need to work on their consistency in order to get even better," Jung said.
Reacting to the wide coverage given in the media to his exploits in Melbourne, he hoped that it would give a higher profile to the sport and attract more youngsters to take up shooting.
"Even if a fraction of the people following the sport take it up seriously, we would have many more champions in the discipline," Jung added.
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