With gold at worlds,Tejaswini sets the record straight

For a country that consistently produces top-class shooters,it was an aberration that no Indian markswoman had ever won a gold medal at a world championships.

For a country that consistently produces top-class shooters,it was an aberration that no Indian markswoman had ever won a gold medal at a world championships. That record was set straight on Sunday by Tejaswini Sawant,who bagged the gold medal in 50m rifle prone category in Munich,Germany.

With a score of 597 (100,100,100,99,99,99),Kolhapur girl Sawant found herself leveled with Polish Ewa Joanna Nowakowska but topped the podium because of her better tally of inner 10s 41 as compared to Nowakowska’s 39. In the process,Sawant also equaled the world record which was set by Russian Marina Bobkova in 1998.

While national coach Sunny Thomas was happy about Sawant performance,he said she could have in fact bettered the mark. In her six series shots,she had 57 10s and three 9s out of which even the two 9s were were at 9.9. It meant she just missed it. If that would have come through,she would have created a new world record today, Thomas told The Indian Express from Munich.

When asked about her narrow margin and the anxiousness after she fired her shots,Sawant said,I knew about the world record but when I was shooting I wasn’t aware about others details. When I came out after my last shot,I saw on the screen that somebody,too,had shot a 97. But now I’m feeling very relaxed and good.

Though Sawant participates in air rifle and rifle 3-position as well,she missed the medals in those categories. Thomas said,Today was a mixture of good and bad. In 3-position,her qualification was bad but we were hopeful for the 50m prone because she has been improving a lot in the past years.

Thomas pointed out that Sawant had won two golds in 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in women’s 10m air rifle singles and 10m air rifle pairs but she could not keep up that position and started training for other categories after that.

Being part of the national squad for about six years,Sawant saw a dip in her form after Melbourne. She failed to qualify for Beijing 2008 where her 10m air rifle partner Avneet Kaur Sindhu had made it to the draw. For quite sometime,Sawant had to lurk in the backdrop of Anjali Bhagwat,Suma Shirur and Deepali Deshpande and therefore Sunday’s achievement comes as a personal relief to her. My confidence is high but I haven’t planned anything about the future yet. I have done well in prone and that can help in 3-position as well.

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Sawant believes she owes this result to her dedicated practice in the past two years and to her mentors,rifle coach Stanislav Lapidus and national coach Thomas. When I started practising for prone two years back,Kuheli Ganguly helped in making a lot of good programs and schedules for me which have worked well.

What also helped was her decision to buy ammunition from Hanover. She visited an ammunition factory in Hanover and bought a lot of equipment suited to her style. She used those equipments today and it is crucial because the ammunition constitutes a major factor in preparation, said Thomas.

Ironically,the 50m rifle prone category is not a part of the Olympic event but Tejaswini is not worried about that. I have hopes for making it to the other categories, she said.

Added Thomas: There is no quota for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games but she has five more tournaments next year four World Cups in different countries and the Asian shooting championships to make it for Olympic games in air rifle and 3 position category. And with Sawant high on confidence,the country will be hoping she achieves some firsts there as well.