As the only woman athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal in an event open to both men and women,Zhang Shans name stands out. Chinas Zhang won the gold medal in the skeet event at the Barcelona Olympics,an event that had mixed category competition from 1972 to 1992. More than a decade later,Zhang has joined as the Indian coach for skeet. Most of the Indian shooters are doing good at the senior and junior level and they need to sustain the same intensity, Zhang,who will train the Indian team for 164 days in the coming two years,told The Indian Express from Pune where she is training the Commonwealth Games probables. For a country which won its first individual Olympic gold in shooting,Zhang draws Indias parallels with her native country. China had won their first individual gold in shooting too,at the 1984 Los Angles Olympics. It made a lot of impact in China when Xu Haifeng won the 50 M pistol event. A lot of youngsters took up shooting. I hope Abhinav Bindras feat will do the same here, says Zhang. We can see the trend already. In the late 90s most of the successful shooters were in the late 20s. But now most of the medal winners are in their early 20s, adds Zhang. Right after the Barcelona Olympics,China was quick to adopt new techniques and set up specialised shooting schools all over the country. And the 41-year-old coach believes India needs to do something similar. In China,we have about 10 shooting schools. Indian shooters have the talent and right technique. What they need is a bit more mental strength to sustain the same kind of level throughout their career, she says.
