It was quite an interesting experience to shoot my first ISSF World Cup Finals. The top 12 shooters of the World based on the performance on the past World Cups of 2006 were invited for this invitational shooting competition.
My training was quite good and everything felt nice at the day of the match. It was very cold however in the 10 meters range it doesnt matter much as it’s indoor, I started off with the sighting shots well with an average of 10.5 on the first 15 shots in the sighters and clicked the match button as I felt confident that I could carry the same rythm and stability into the qualification shots, I succeded in the first 34 shots and shot an average series of 104.5 which means that the first three series were 100,100,100 but as the match went on my stability decreased and my mental frame of mind also got disturbed as a result the last three series were 98,99,98. In total I scored 595 to finish 6th in the qualifications. In the finals top 8 shooters from the qualifications are selected only.
I knew that if I shoot the finals well I had a good chance to win atleast a bronze. My first 3 shots were mearly 10.0 and 10.1 and 10.1 and so on however in the last 5 shots I had an average of 10.3 and ended up with a tie shot “SHOOT OFF” at the end of the finals for the 5th place with the shooter who was in 2nd place in the final. In the shoot off which is a single shot match between both the tied shooters, I shot a 10.3 against my competitors’s 9.7 and won the shoot off to finish 5th eventually. The first three places were Farnik Thomas from Austria and second and third being the two from China. The pressure was immense in the finals as this was my first final of a World Cup final. It was also a good learning experience and I hope it will add to my future performances. I also learnt that more needs to go into adjusting and fine tuning my rifle which I would be doing at the future training camps. I have also recieved my new jacket and trouser which I would try before the Asian Games at Doha.
