19 November,2010 09:21 AM IST | | Agencies
India's long-time shooting coach Sunny Thomas will resign after returning home from the Asian Games following a poor show by his highly-rated squad.
"I don't want to continue any more," Thomas, 69, told Indian reporters on Friday. "I have been around for 17 years. Age is catching up with me and I want to do other things.
"All things considered, it is time to say good-bye."
Thomas said he was disappointed that India failed to win a gold medal in the pistol and rifle events in Guangzhou after pistol shooter Jaspal Rana picked up three titles at Doha four year ago.
"Our shooters are very talented and they put in a lot of hard work during training. Unfortunately, the results were not up to our expectations."
India have won three silver and two bronze medals with only the trap and skeet events left to be contested at the Guangzhou Shotgun Centre.
Thomas' most memorable moment in his long career as coach came when air rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra became India's first and only individual Olympic champion at Beijing two years ago.
India won 14 shooting gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last month, including four by air rifle ace Gagan Narang.
Shooting became a popular sport in India after army officer Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
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