Abhinav Bindra aims for more medals

Teenaged Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra said on Tuesday he aims to win more medals for India after claiming a bronze at the World Cup in Munich last week.

Bindra scored 597 out of a possible 600 points in the air rifle event to set a junior world mark in the preliminary stages before finishing behind Norway's Leif Steinar and China's Jian Qiu in the final.

"It was a great experience, I feel everything is going my way," Bindra told reporters on Tuesday.

"I want to carry on and do better and be ready in time for the Afro-Asian and Commonwealth Games," he said.

The Afro-Asian Games are to be held in New Delhi this November while the Commonwealth Games will be staged next year at Manchester.

Bindra had equalled the junior world record of 596 going into the Sydney Olympics last year but narrowly failed to make the eight-shooter final.

"Age is on his side," said Baljit Singh Sethi, secretary general of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

"I'm sure he'll go from strength to strength and break a senior world record in the near future," Sethi added.

But Bindra, 18, said a full-time foreign coach was needed for the Indian team if they were to perform well overseas.

"I think a foreign coach for the team is a must. That will help me and the rest of the team a great deal," he said.

Anjali Vedpathak, who finished eighth in the women's air rifle event at Sydney and was fifth in Munich last week also supported the hiring of a full-time coach.

"We need a good coach to be in place well in time for the Afro-Asian Games," she said.

Vedpathak, 31, won gold in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Sports officials said India was in discussions with a Russian trainer and expected to hire him by early September.