Coach Thomas to leave for Olympics with three shooters

Thiruvananthapuram - Indian shooting coach Sunny Thomas is excited as he and his team is all set to leave for the London Olympics.

Speaking to IANS over telephone from Delhi, Thomas said he was leaving with three of the team members on Friday.

“See, this is one event where the team member does not compete with other contestants, instead he or she contests with oneself and each of the 11 members Indian team is capable of bringing home a medal,” said Thomas.

Indian team comprise seven men and four women contestants including Abhinav Bindra, Ronjan Sodhi and Gagan Narang.

“Bindra is doing well and mind you this is one event where there can be no magical performance, instead what one has to do is to perform or rather repeat what each player has been doing over and over again,” said Thomas referring to the Beijing Olympics gold medallist.

Thomas was around when Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and Bindra won the country’s first individual gold medal.

“I have now completed 19 years as the coach and this time I will be quitting. My previous requests to relieve me was not accepted,” added Thomas.

Thomas is a local hero at the Uzhavoor village near Kottayam which first hit the limelight in 1997 when K.R. Narayanan became the president of India.