Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar have seen better days. Two years ago at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, the duo were the toast of the Indian Olympic team as they won a bronze (10m air rifle) and a silver (25m rapid fire pistol), respectively, in a space of a couple of days. The duo have not won a medal at a major competition since.

Besides taking some time off, post the London Games, Narang was slowed down by a neck injury — a serious threat to his career. In Kumar’s case, the whispers among the coaching staff indicates that he chose to take it easy.

Narang had to put his comeback on hold. He was to return to competitive shooting by September last year. While Narang has made the prone team for Glasgow, he failed to make the cut in the 10 m air rifle — for the Commonwealth Games as well as the World Championships, the first qualification tournament for the Rio Olympics.

“He had to stay away from shooting because of his neck injury,” his close aide Pawan Singh said. “He couldn’t move his neck 90 degrees so he concentrated on the prone instead, where he doesn’t need to move his neck sideways. The situation was such that surgery was required. But we persisted with physiotherapy instead. Till about this March, he was experiencing pain. It was a serious set back. But it is over now,” Singh added.

In Kumar’s case, it is a question of motivation or lack of it, which in turn has resulted in poor form.

While he has been participating in all the tournaments since the London Games, the London Olympics silver medallist has failed to enter the medal rounds. “I think it is down to a lack of incentive. I am only saying this because there was nothing to look forward to the World Cups as they weren’t Olympic qualification events,” chief coach Mohinder Lal explained.

“You also can’t say his form is down, at least not fully. He has been part of the team all this while. We are hoping he will starting winning medals here in Glasgow,” adds the coach.