be it her fifth-placed finish at the World Championships, or the World Record breaking effort at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Samra’s standing blitzkrieg would always soar her over some of the best Olympic shooters in the continent and then the World.Up until the Paris Olympics, Indian Women’s 50m 3P shooter Sift Kaur Samra always had a get-out-of-jail card in her pocket. She knew that if her prone and kneeling positions weren’t right up there with the best in the world, she could always just rev up the Ferrari that is her standing position scores.Up until the Paris Olympics, Indian Women’s 50m 3P shooter Sift Kaur Samra always had a get-out-of-jail card in her pocket. She knew that if her prone and kneeling positions weren’t right up there with the best in the world, she could always just rev up the Ferrari that is her standing position scores.
Be it her fifth-placed finish at the World Championships, or the World Record breaking effort at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Samra’s standing blitzkrieg would always soar her over some of the best Olympic shooters in the continent and then the World.
But come Chateauroux, the poor prone and kneeling was followed by an even worse standing performance. Qualification came to a close and one of India’s favourites for a medal (she had won bronze at the Munich World Cup just a month removed) at the Paris Olympics finished a shocking 31st out of 32 shooters.
the 23-year-old was part of a group of Indian shooters who had risen up the ranks in the 50m 3P position and put the country’s shooters as a legitimate force in the event. Samra, Anjum Moudgil and Ashi Chouksey on the women’s side, and Swapnil Kusale, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Akhil Sheoran were all putting up world class scores in the year leading up to the Olympics. While Kusale took a deserved medal, India’s best 3P shooter was left wondering what happened.
When the standing position shots didn’t land dead centre, Samra tried to switch things up. She slowed down the pace of her shots, she left her position and then came back after a rethink, then went through her rifle to see if some adjustments were off, and finally went through her kit to see what was wrong. But no answer appeared and the qualification ended with a promising hope of a medal dashed.
“Even when the prone position went bad, I felt that my standing could have pulled me out of the situation. But then in standing I was just out of the zone.”
Immediately after that disastrous qualification, Samra’s mother was by her side and took no time to deliver a roast to her daughter.