• Source:JND
Add as a preferred

India's star shooter Sift Kaur Samra won her first individual gold medal during the ISSF World Cup in the women's 50m rifle 3 position in Buenos Aires, Argentina last month. Hailing from Faridkot, the young shooter also had a world record as she went past the 7-point deficit and won the country's first gold medal in the first event of the year.

Samra had scored 458.6 points, during the 45-shot summit clash, whereas Germany's Anita Mangold had clinched the silver medal after scoring 455.3 points. Kazakhstan's Arina Altukhova scored 459 points and won the bronze medal and also made the exit after the 44th shot.

This win took India to the second position in the points table after winning a gold and a bronze medal post-Chain Singh won the bronze medal during the men's 3P event. China was the table toppers after winning the gold and the silver medal.

Samra then reached first place after scoring 590 points as she went past Olympic champions like Switzerland's Chiara Leone and Nine Christien, who couldn't qualify for the top 8. Kazakhstan's Olympic medalist Alexandria Le and America's Mary Tucker also failed to qualify.

Sift caught up with Jagran English for an exclusive interview, where she talked about what went wrong with her performance in the Paris Olympics, whether the pressure of being the world record holder affected her during the World Cup, and much more.

Excerpts:

Q. You finished in the 31st position of the 32 athletes for the Paris Olympics qualification. What do you think went wrong with that?

Sift: I used to think about the Paris Olympics every day. Everything was perfect and that particular day was not that great. But now I am not thinking about it because after playing in so many matches and tournaments if I don't do well in one tournament doesn't mean anything. I am trying to move on and focus on my next tournaments.

Q. You had won a gold medal in the 50m rifle 3 position at the Asian Games with a world record score. Does the pressure of being the world record holder in one of the biggest tournaments get the better of you?

Sift: No, there was no pressure of being the world record holder because I created the world record in the final, and thinking about the qualification round of the final doesn't give me pressure and I created the world record with the help of the weather conditions also. The weather conditions in Argentina and Peru were not similar to that in China. So that's why I was not thinking about anything and just tried to focus on the present. Just thinking about the qualification and the final round on that particular day.

Q. Recently Pullela Gopichand said that one shouldn't pursue a career in sports if they don't have a backup plan. So what's your take on that?

Sift: I think that's correct because you should have a backup plan as you don't know how long or how far you can go in sports. And what are the upcoming things you have in life or challenges I would say because in sports it's always about winning and losing and not shooting, like in any tournament, you don't know when you get injured. You should have a backup plan so that if I would not say, by chance anything happens, you have a thing in your hand. Some people play sports for their careers and some play just to represent India. Or you can say they come from financially stable families and they just want to play or travel the world around. I think most Indians, who are in sports want to make their career in sports. So I think that having a career in sports for a long time is not feasible, and one should have a backup plan that one can pursue. You won't be thinking that I should have done better with my life.

Q. What are the future tournaments that you have set your eyes on?

Sift: Now we have the World Cup in Munich in June which I would be targeting.