Ayonika thrives under pressure

Indian shooter Ayonika Paul, who will represent the country at the Rio Olympics said she thrives under pressure and is now focusing on polishing her technique ahead of the Games.

Ayonika, a second year ME student at the Pillai College of Engineering, Panvel, Mumbai, will compete in the 10 meters air rifle event at the Olympics. 

"They (preparations for the Olympics) are just as planned, what I had planned before on the books and it is according to that and I am happy about it. We are quite experienced right now and it's all about how we handle it (pressure). And for me, I always love to play with a bit of pressure. Whatever preparations had to be done, are done, right now I am just polishing my technique," Ayonika said.

The Indian shooter, who won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, studies at the Mahatma Education Society's Pillai Group of Institutions here, around 50 kms from Mumbai. 

"The feelings on that day (when she had secured her Olympic quota on January 29), it was all about that moment when I qualified, that time I was emotion-less because, I knew I will be winning the quota because I had put in so much of hard-work."

"But that after I won and when everybody came and hugged me, that finally I came to know that after four years I am getting it (to play in the Olympics)," she said. 

She had bagged the silver medal in the Asia Qualifying Round in New Delhi to qualify for Olympics. Ayonika is a disciplined shooter who has won medals for India in the past. 

This experience and the heartbreak of missing the London Olympics by a whisker will make her even more determined for a strong showing at Rio. 

She came close to gold at the qualifying tournament in Delhi, after she shot 205.9 in the eight-woman final, same as gold medalist Najmeh Khedmati of Iran, but lost out on the top prize as she managed 9.9 to the Iranian's 10.1 in the shoot-off. However, the podium finish was proof of the talent she has, and she is preparing to do much better in Rio. 

Coached by Farnik Thomas, the shooter has improved a lot in the last couple of years as was evident by her two wins in 2014 – the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup in Maribor. In the same years, she also she entered the final of four consecutive major tournaments, winning medals in two, according to her profile on Olympic Gold Quest. 

Ayonika first made news in 2008 when she won the gold medal at International Junior Shooting Competition in Munich and went on to win multiple medals in Junior National Shooting Championships. 

She had narrowly missed qualifying for the London Games, at the Asian Championships in Doha in 2012, and now that she has got her chance, will be raring to give it her best shot.