World Cup bronze in ladies’s 10m air rifle, courtesy 14-year-old Tilottama Sen

In 2020 in the course of the Covid-19 lockdown and subsequent months, an 11-year outdated Tilottama Sen can be busy watching Chhota Bheem and different cartoons on Pogo at her dwelling in Bengaluru. It was then that her father Sujit Sen, a Tech Mahindra worker, took her to a close-by taking pictures vary to take her thoughts off them.

On Tuesday, when the 14-year-old Tilottama received the bronze medal in ladies’s 10m Air Rifle occasion on the ISSF World Cup in Cairo with a rating of 262.0 within the rating match, Sujit, his spouse Nandita and son Srijan headed to a temple.

“While Tilottama played volleyball and karate, she would spend time watching Chhota Bheem and other cartoons on Pogo most of the time sitting at home during the Covid-19 lockdown. She was physically strong and when we took her to a shooting range, she was happy that she had something to practise all day,” the proud father advised The Indian Express.

The day ends nicely for 🇮🇳 on the ISSF Shooting World Cup.

Its🥉for 🇮🇳 within the 10m Air Rifle Women’s Event!

14yr outdated Tilottama brings glory for the nation as she turns into 🇮🇳’s youngest medalist within the Sr. Shooting World Cup 🥳

Heartiest congratulations champ👏 pic.twitter.com/cbsXAfuLUs

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) February 21, 2023

The teen initially educated beneath coach Sharanandra at his academy for 4 months earlier than refining her abilities beneath varied coaches and academies in Bengaluru. Within months, she had shot an ideal 400/400 within the Karnataka State Shooting Championships.

“Initially, competing in rifle shooting was tiring for me with the rifle and jacket. It took me some time to adjust but as I practised more, I enjoyed it a lot,” Tilottama advised The Indian Express from Cairo.

After a silver and three bronze medals within the junior class on the 2021 nationals, she completed sixth within the senior ladies’s 10m air rifle occasion ultimately yr’s nationals.

“The first rifle she got was for Rs 2.35 lakh and the jacket cost Rs 65,000. I spent that from my savings and would travel daily with her to the academy on my bike. While she practised, I would work on my laptop the whole day and we would return in the evening after her training sessions,” recalled Sujit.

Swift progress

Last yr, she received the bronze medal on the Junior World Championships in Cairo and this yr has seen the teen topping the trial 1 and trial 2 carried out by NRAI. Last yr, she additionally received the silver medal on the nationwide video games.

Coach Rakesh Manpat, who labored with Tilottama until the tip of 2022, remembers her exceeding the finals world document in a web-based meet in 2021.

“Tilottama was very sharp in picking up the basics of rifle shooting and she had all the basic techniques perfected in her mind in a very short time. In an online meet conducted by us in association with Abhinav Bindra and Niccolo Campriani, she shot more than the final world record score of 252.2. She loves shooting and shoots 200-300 shots in a day. Her biggest strength is her focus,” Manpat mentioned.

On Tuesday, Tilottama completed second behind Tokyo Olympian Seonaid Mcintosh of Great Britain in qualification with a rating of 632.7 with two different Indians Ramita Jindal and Narmada Raju too qualifying for the rating match. In the eight-shooter rating sequence, she was competing in a area consisting of 4 Olympians, together with Tokyo Olympics 10m air rifle bronze medallist and 50m 3P gold medallist Nina Christien of Switzerland. In her 25 photographs, Tilottama shot 16 photographs of 10.5 or above together with two photographs of 10.9.

“I was competing against myself and whenever and wherever I shoot, I don’t think about whom I am competing against. So it doesn’t matter if there is an Olympic champion in the field. I started badly but the second and third series made me believe that I can win a medal here,” she mentioned.