Among the numerous medals shining bright inside Shaira Kansal's modest room,the gold medal- the one she won in the recently concluded Fifth TAFISA World Sports for all Games held at Siauliai in Lithuania- glittered and looked the prettiest of all. In fact,the joy on her face on seeing the yellow medal which she had put at a place above the rest,perfectly summed up the euphoria the young archer had experienced over the last few days. In the tournament,in which participants from more than 80 countries were taking part in various disciplines like archery,arm wrestling and karate,Shaira,standing in her first ever international tournament,returned with a score of 319 out of 360 to strike gold in the compound category. The last arrow that she released from the bow and hit the target produced the sweetest music for her ears and yielded her first ever international gold. "Right from the onset I had made sure to keep a good score. I was not only shooting arrows from a positive frame of mind,but also there was no pressure on me since I was already ahead of others. I just kept everything simple," Shaira,who was among the 20 players representing India,shared. Keeping things simple in the presence of top archers from countries like Russia,Germany,Poland and Latvia was going to be a tough task. But an undaunted Shaira soldiered on and just did what her coach,Vikas Shastri,had been teaching her all this while: keep eye on the target. "It really means a lot to have won an individual medal. Standing on the podium and receiving the medal is that one moment in my life which I can never forget. Sanket (Sharma) bhaiya was also in the compound category and he was very helpful. Also,the presence of Beijing Olympian Mangal Singh Champia and other renowned archers like Priyanka and Kapil,was enough to lift the morale ," added the young archer. Prior to the tournament,a preparatory camp was held at Lake Club in Chandigarh. The eight hours (five in the morning and three in the evening) of daily hard work and perseverence not only gave her the shining gold medal,but also a new wave of profound confidence. Before Lithuania,Shaira had faced top archers from the country in the sub-junior and junior national tournaments in 2011,but failed to return with any medal. However,the recent medal has put her in the brackets of among the most exciting talents from the region and Shaira is revelling in a new-found confidence. "There is an international tournament in November in Italy. I will try my best to get a good score in the trials and qualify for the event," Shaira,a student of Delhi Public School,rolled on. Hitting the bulls eye Almost till two and a half years ago,Shaira,still in the seconday school,had almost no plans to try her hands at archery. Swimming was her hobby and she was creating ripples in the swimming events held at the state level. But the desire to try something different,something exciting,got the better of her and between shooting and archery,Shaira chose the latter. "I never thought I would be successful at archery. From the first state tournament I started winning medals and the game started to interest me more," Shaira,14,said. Hitting the bull's eye came naturally to Shaira as she won gold in all the three categories in the Inter School tournament,her first ever tournament,held two years ago. More success followed and gold medals continued to rain in Mini Olympics and other state touraments. "The half hour meditation-cum-exercise session which we follow everyday before the start of the practice session really helps in keeping the mind focussed," Shaira who idolises Deepika Kumari and Tarundeep Rai,shared.
