Time away from family makes Shahera a stronger person
KUALA LUMPUR: For mother-of-two Shahera Rahim Raja, the 42 days she spent in South Korea “seemed like an eternity”.
That is understandable as the national woman rifle shooter had to be away from her husband Ziyahul Asraf and two children – three-year-old Muhammad Aryan Zaffar and two-year-old Afsheen Saffiya – to train in Daegu and Chenogju.
The 10m air rifle shooter, left for South Korea on May 17, and trained for two weeks in Daegu and four weeks in Cheongju.
She was one of the 17 shooters – 10 men and seven women – who underwent training there.
But the 32-year-old Shahera, who arrived home on Wednesday, realised that it was a sacrifice she had to make to improve herself in preparation for the KL SEA Games in August.
And she’s glad she went for what she described as “the toughest physical and mental training of my career”.
“That’s the first time I’ve been away from my children for so long. I really missed them and I was not with them to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri,” said Shahera.
“I would call my children almost everyday to talk to them as they kept asking my husband where I was.
“I must thank my husband for taking care of the kids so that I could attend the training in South Korea.
“Staying away from my children for six weeks taught me how to overcome my emotions. The training in Korea has helped build my confidence and improve my shooting techniques.
“We had three training sessions daily. The first was from 8am until 1pm. The second was from 2pm to 4pm. The last session would be for either hiking or jogging.
“It was tiring to train long hours and then go hiking everyday. But I’m not complaining though. It made me stronger – physically and mentally.
“We also trained with the Korean shooters and learned how to stay calm and composed in the two competitions we took part in while we were there.
“Now, I am all fired up to give my best at the SEA Games,” added Shahera, whose next assignment will be the National Shooting Championships at the National Shooting Range in Subang from July 13-16.
Shahera has taken part in three SEA Games – 2007 Korat (fourth in 10m air rifle individual); 2009 Laos (silver in 10m air rifle team and bronze in 50m rifle prone team); and 2011 Palembang (silver in 10m air rifle team).