RIO -- At first glance, it is a mildly comical sight. Grown men, lying flat on their tummies, perching up wth a rifle in hand. However, the Prone event is seriously tough business. A competitor has to stay 50 minutes in that posture to get 60 shots across to a target placed 50 metres away. The centre of the target is positioned 0.75 metres above the floor.The diameter of the target is breathtakingly tiny at 154.4 millimetres but get this, that isnt what the shooters aim for. The fourth ring within that target is 106.4 millimetres and just because somehow that isnt challenging enough to shoot at, the tenth ring, where a shot can be worth 10.9 points measures 10.4 millimetres.The security checks at the Olympic shooting range were slower than usual so by the time I walked in on Friday morning, Gagan Narang was already through the first three series of the qualifying rounds. 104.7. 104.4. 104.6. Steady, consistent scores and while he wouldnt have known with the scoreboard placed behind the shooters, he was snapping at the heels of the early leaders. The intention at this point was to finish among the top eight, with the scores from this stage of the competition being discarded in the final.Narang, in his fourth Olympics, was at the extreme right end of the field of 47 shooters, with only two others farther away. For most of his career Narang was primarily a 10m Air Rifle shooter - he won his Olympic bronze in London in 2012 in this category. But since those Games he turned his attention to Prone as a neck injury forced him out of contention in the Air Rifle. The differences in the two competitions are significant.Besides the obvious ones that the shooter stands in the Air Rifle and lies down in Prone and shoots over 10m in the Air Rifle and 50m in the Prone, there are other major adjustments to make. The Air Rifle can not weigh more than 5.5 kilograms while the one used in Prone can be up to 8 kilograms in weight. The nature of the ammunition too varies, with the Prone using a 0.22 inch caliber bullet while the Air Rifle is shot with 0.177 inch pellet. The Air Rifle is indoors and hence competed in a controlled environment. Prone is outdoors and shooters are expected to conquer elements such as windy conditions and extreme weather.Now to us casual observers, that sounds like a bunch of gobbledygook but for those in the business of shooting, to master these vastly different skill sets is a massive challenge. Narang had to because of his injury and made encouraging progress. At the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow, he won silver in the event and earned his quota place for the Rio games in Prone too. So even when he squandered a strong start in the 10m Air Rifle qualification earlier in the week to finish in 23rd place, Narang didnt let his shoulders droop.He knew he had his new baby to fall back on.Series four begins and the first blip appears on Narangs radar. 103. The knowledgeable heads seated alongside me start to get a bit shifty. Frayed nerves are settled as series five is recorded at 104. Ten shots to go and this should be in the bag. Five more and Narang is in seventh spot. And then, he experiences his Jitu Rai moment. Just like his pistol colleague who floundered at about the same stage in his event, the wind picks up and Narang lets the shot go that would kill him.9.5There is an audible gasp. He needs a sizzling finish to recover now but it doesnt come. Lower 10s end his series at 102.4. On a cumulative score of 623.1, Narang tumbles to 13th. German Henri Junhaenel would qualify on 624.8. Only 1.7 points when you read a colourless scoresheet, in shooting parlance the margin between elite and the also rans.Narang is a broken man as he stands up to examine the ruins of his day. A quiet conversation with his coach, an exasperated waft through his hair, hands on hips, he stares blankly into the distance as the range starts to empty out.Shot 56. 9.5. Goddamn it. This micro second of a moment will return to his dreams for years.I gave my best, I gave it all I had, he tells us quote seekers. I will have to go back and think what exactly happened. I will have to run it through my mind again.At 33, Narang is no stranger to combating gut-wrenching disappointments. He does stoic easily at most times but one senses that on this day, his spirit is broken. He leaves sentences incomplete, he speaks in a soft, near inaudible voice, he struggles to count the positives.He watches the final later, ironically won by Junhaenel, the German who qualified in eighth spot. 1.7 points ahead of Narang.That 9.5. Goddamn it.I would like to shoot more, he wearily tells us. This is definitely not the end for me. Atlanta Hawks Gear .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. Hawks Jerseys 2021 . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. https://www.cheaphawks.com/ . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Atlanta Hawks Store . The CFLs leading rusher kept adding to his gaudy numbers this season and scored the winning touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The New Westminster, B.C., native plowed three yards into the end zone for the last score of a heated, see-saw battle between the two teams with the best records in the CFL. Atlanta Hawks Shirts . "No difference at all," chirped U.S. roommate and linemate James van Riemsdyk. "Its still the same cranky Phil.NEW YORK -- Hoping their baseball success will translate to titles in another sport, the Yankees are combining with English power Manchester City to own a Major League Soccer expansion team in New York that will start play in 2015. The team, the 20th in a league that has doubled in size in two decades, will be called New York City Football Club. It has less than two years to find a temporary home while also focusing on where it wants to build a permanent stadium. "Its a powerhouse combination," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after Tuesdays announcement. Manchester City, owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, will be the controlling owner. The Yankees were approached about investing last week and will have an interest of 20 per cent to 25 per cent, a person familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail wasnt announced. The expansion fee for the new team is $100 million. It will compete for attention and dollars with 10 other professional big league clubs in the New York market. "Theyll be running all the soccer. We know our way around New York, how to get things done," said Yankees President Randy Levine, who will be the teams lead person in the launch. While the Yankees have won a record 27 World Series titles, Manchester City is more akin to the crosstown Mets. It has just three league championships in England compared with rival Manchester Uniteds 20. Four years ago, after City was bought by Sheik Mansours company, United manager Alex Ferguson derisively called City a "noisy neighbour." MLS has been negotiating with New York City to build a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, near the home of the Mets. The Mets had explored owning an MLS team before financial turmoil caused by the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. "Flushing is still the preferred site," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. However, some community groups have opposed using city parkland. The new owners will consider other sites. "We need a community that supports us. We need a family thats going to embrace us," Manchester City Chief Executive Officer Ferran Soriano said. "So were going to continue this discussion. But the first thing we want to do is to listen, listen to the community, listen to everybody." Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said the Yankees involvement "opens the door for the possibility there might be a serious discussion about relocating where the stadium will go." For a soccer stadium to be built at Flushing Meadows, NYC FC would have to reach an agreement with the Mets to use Citi Fields parking lots. The Mets declined comment on the Yankees deal. "It seems to make sense with the Yankees involved that the doorstep of Citi Field would be less enticing perhaps than before," Leicht said. New Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009, was built on the site of Macombs Dam Park. That parkland was replaced, but not fully until Heritage Field opened last year on the site of the old ballpark. "While the parks that were built are lovely, theres still a lot of remaining anger among a lot of parks advocates about how that whole process went down," Leicht said. Bloomberg, in the final year of his term, has advocated the Queens site.dddddddddddd "Flushing Meadows Park is the right place to put it," he said. "Its at the end of the park that doesnt get as much use, and we could get aid for fixing up and helping up the part of the park that everybody does use." NYC FC will start play at an interim venue. New Yankee Stadium hosted its first two soccer matches last summer and is the site of an exhibition Saturday between Manchester City and Chelsea. The original Yankee Stadium was the home of the North American Soccer Leagues New York Cosmos in 1976. "Yankee Stadium is an option, as are many places," Levine said. The new team is intended to spark a rivalry with the New York Red Bulls, an original MLS team from 1996 that in 2010 moved into a 25,000-seat, $200 million stadium in in Harrison, N.J. "The Red Bulls now will have a rival here in the market providing them with that derby-like competition that is such a driver of what makes football so successful around the world," Garber said. There is a chance NYC FC can serve as a farm team for Manchester City, which in 2012 won its first Premier League title since 1968. Young players unable to break into the Man City squad could be loaned to the MLS team. "I think naturally it will happen, that some Manchester players will end up playing in New York," Soriano said. "But the objective and the focus will be to try to find the right players for the New York team. The New York team is a team on its own." The Yankees have long explored soccer deals. A partnership with Manchester United was announced in 2001, but that turned into a now-expired licensing and broadcasting agreement in which the clubs sold each others licensed goods and exchanged television programming. The Yankees YES Network has broadcast Arsenal games on a delayed basis since October 2010 -- the same month the parent company of the rival Boston Red Sox took control of Liverpool in the Premier League. Legends Hospitality, co-owned by the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and Checketts Partners Investment Fund, will run hospitality and catering at Manchester Citys Etihad Stadium next season under a partnership with Jamie Olivers Fabulous Feasts that was announced in January. Legends already has started work on premium seat sales. Levine downplayed his verbal sparring with Garber four years ago, which followed the MLS commissioners comments about empty premium seats at the new New York baseball stadiums. Levine said then "if he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously." "Don and I are old friends," Levine said Tuesday. "Whats a little fun between friends?" With the decision completed on team No. 20, MLS can turn attention to No. 21. Former Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham, retiring as a player this weekend, has an option to buy an MLS expansion team at below cost. Miami appears to be a possible market for Beckham, and groups would like to bring the league to Atlanta and Orlando, Fla. "Its just premature," Garber said. "Clearly weve got to finalize a long-term expansion plan for the league." ' ' '