Gang All Set to Stage Comeback

˝I am all determined and ready, ˝ `Little princess` Gang Cho-hyeon, (20, Galaria) said in a spirited tone. She seemed to put her past mistake behind.

Gang is in a shooting range again after her tint as a sports commentator during the Busan Asian Games. The 11th National Shooting Championship opened in Taereng Shooting Range on Oct. 18 will also select the line-up of national players for next year.

Gang will compete in the women`s air rifle on the 20, in her major area where she recorded average 395.6 points for the last 3 matches. She is only one point behind Suh Sun-hwa in the first rank. She must concentrate herself on every single shot to become a part of the national team again.

˝You should let your worries go when you shot. That`s key, ˝ Gang sounded grown-up.

She went through 6-hours-a-day hard training in Daejeon where her team is based. The training was focused on `readiness` to address her shortcoming with percussion, and was also made up of two hours of running and sit-ups.

˝I`ve never seen her working as hard as this, ˝ said team coach Song Hee-song. ˝She scores more than 395 of 400. ˝

Gang emerged as a major sports star player after she won a silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, sparking `Chorong Syndorme.` Her pretty girlish face and openness put her under the media spotlight in contrast to the fact that she was raised in a poor family.

The stardom, however, did not last long. She didn`t practice a lot and dropped out of the national race. It was a hard lesson for the teenage girl. She ended up at the fourth place, failing to wear the national uniform allowed for only top three.

˝I don`t want to make the same mistake again, ˝ the shooting player, who is all set to join the national team again in 2 years, said emphatically. ˝I prepared a lot, and what I have to do now is to stand on the line composed and collected. ˝

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com