ISSF World Cup 2021 | Gold medal win will boost my confidence ahead of Tokyo Games, claims Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar competes in the men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event
|Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar admitted that the Gold medal win at the ongoing ISSF World Cup will give him loads of confidence ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The shooter qualified for the quadrennial event by virtue of a Bronze medal win at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships.
India has by far been the best performing nation in the ongoing ISSF World Cup, with them placed at the top of the points table, clear of the second-placed USA by some margin. Young Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar was one of the latest additions to the list, with him winning the Gold medal in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, on Wednesday.
The 20-year old has already qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics by virtue of his Bronze medal win at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships, in Doha. One of India’s medal prospect, Aishwary feels that the Gold medal win will boost his confidence ahead of the mega-event, which kick-starts in July, later this year.
"This will further boost my confidence ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. Qualification was good but score was low, situation was not very good in qualifications, it was very windy and it has also started to rain towards the end, and that created difficulties. In the Finals, there was pressure but I shot okay,” said Aishwary Pratap Singh, after the triumph.
The Madhya Pradesh-based shooter, with a score of 462.5, had the better of Hungary’s Istvan Peni (461.6) and Denmark’s Steffen Olsen (450.9) to claim the top-prize in the medal event. As informed, the Aishwary was not feeling well ahead of the final, with him developing a ‘vomiting sensation’, but his coach Suma Shirur gave him valuable advice to ease the situation.
"I was feeling nervous today morning and ma'am said it's good that you are feeling nervous. There was nothing in my mind -- that I was competing with the world number one. We are all at same level now,” added the Tokyo-bound shooter.
