KUALA LUMPUR, SEPT 17: After the gold medal, all that Roopa Unnikrishnan wants is to hug her parents. And if the 26-year-old doesn't get to do that now, the hug will have to wait till October, when she finishes her graduation in Oxford and returns home.``It took quite sometime for it (the win) to sink in,'' said an ecstatic Roopa after her first major success in shooting. Roopa, who practises twice a week at the Bisley Range near Oxford where she is studying for a Masters degree in Business Administration, said she had lost hopes of a gold medal after seeing her score of 560 after 57 shots.``Usually, I don't see my scores during the competition. This time, suddenly when I had three shots left in the last card, I looked up and saw 560. I realised I had dropped 10 points and anything more could mean no medal. I was determined to get three tens in the last three. I managed that, and when I got the final card I saw it was 590,'' said Roopa.``I was quite sure that I would not get a gold, which I feltmight go in 594 or 595. Then I saw my name flashed on the scoreboard. It was the most thrilling moment and I couldn't feel it. It took some time for me to realise I had won the gold,'' she said.As for the tie which finally got her a gold medal, Roopa recalled, ``I have lost medals (bronze) in both Beijing and Hiroshima and when it happened again here, I thought I was never going to win a tie. I told myself `I have to shoot so well that a tie never arises'. But it did and the last three tens probably did the trick as Carolyn Quigley messed her last card for a 95.''What next? ``I have one more event on Saturday (individual sport rifle three positions) and then it is back to the books at Oxford,'' she said. What about celebrating with folks back home? ``Get me a ticket. Actually, now that I have a gold, the next thing I want is to hug my parents. It is time somebody gave me a ticket to go and back to England. Right?''Absolutely.
