Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar: Medal will boost my confidence ahead of Olympics

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar with his 50m rifle 3 positions gold medal

Growing up with guns, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar is now dreaming of shining at the Olympics, having graduated to the elite level from shooting balloons in fairs and serving a one-year suspension at the start of his career.

Aishwary, 20, on Wednesday claimed the gold medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event in the ISSF World Cup here, a day after tackling very difficult and windy conditions in the qualifications.

"This will further boost my confidence ahead of the Tokyo Olympics," Aishwary said after his maiden gold in a senior world cup.

Farmer's son

Son of a farmer father Veer Bahadur Singh, who loved collecting rifles, and the cousin of shooter Navdeep Singh Rathore, who has been a part of the Indian team in the past, he got attracted to the sport at a young age. He was also suspended for an entire year for using faulty equipment in his debut junior Nationals in 2015. But he came back strongly in 2016 and is rated highly by his coach Suma Shirur.

Nervous feeling

"I was feeling nervous today morning and ma'am said it's good that you are feeling nervous," said the shooter. He shot 462.5 to win the top prize ahead of Hungary's World No. 1 Istvan Peni (461.6). "There was nothing in my mind - that I was competing with the World No. 1. We are all at same level now."

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