New Delhi, Jul 9: Speculation can often be a futile exercise but Indian shooters' success stories in recent years have ensured that they head into the London Olympics with bright hopes of adding on to Abhinav Bindra's historic gold-medal feat in Beijing four summers ago.

Providing fillip to such thoughts are their composure and confidence. Notwithstanding the hoopla and expectations around them, the likes of Ronjan Sodhi, Bindra and Gagan Narang preferred not to shoot from the lip in the run-up to the Games, as they are well aware that it's the scores on the given day that will matter eventually.

In national coach Sunny Thomas' words, the Indians are keen to raise the bar at the Royal Artillery Barracks, which will play host to the crème de la crème of world shooting from Jul 27.

Among the top shooters from across the globe, India will have its contenders in defending champion Bindra, Sodhi and Gagan Narang. While the three mentioned above are seen as India's brightest medal hopes in shooting, the others are no less talented and have the ability to hit the bull's eye on their day.

From nine in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the number of shooters for the London Games have swelled to 11, which is the highest ever. Eleven is quite an impressive number and one cannot also overlook the fact that Indian shooters have upped their standards since Aug 11, 2008 when Bindra shot an incredible 700.5 to clinch the men's 10m Air Rifle gold at the Beijing Shooting Range.

PTI