Butt of jokes after missing target in London, Bombayla eyes redemption

NEW DELHI: Laishram Bombayla Devi is a changed woman. Four years ago, she was still nursing bruised ego and was the butt of the jokes after she completely missed hitting the target face in her pre-quarters exit at the hand of Mexico’s Roman Aida.

From being too casual – she was seen with a big smile after that big glaring loss, to one of the responsible trio of Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro that dashed India’s big hope of an archery medal at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, Bombayla has had her share of the criticisms.

A day before she had encountered one of the worst days of her career too as the Indian team that included her, young star Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro were dumped out of the team competition by Denmark. But it wasn’t her doing alone; the entire team had a collective horror day at the field.

Looking back, Bombayla confessed that few of the things went a bit too far. “I laughed out about that arrow joke at first but then I felt bad about it too. If you ask me, I still don’t know how I missed that arrow? I still remember it how I composed myself and hit two tens back to back. Hitting those two arrows restored my confidence,” she said.

She added that the ridicule didn’t bother her much. “I listen from one ear and it passed from the other. It only affected me till that point. I am not a person that keeps deliberating on such things for long,” she added.

The experience in London has made her more determined to do well at the Rio Games, which will be her third attempt at glory.

“London was four years ago. Much has changed since then. I have matured too. I’ll only say this that we will try and do better than the last time. We have improved a lot. And we more focused than the last time,” she said NO HYPE The other thing that has changed since London Games is that the team hasn’t been talked up like the last time. And Bombayla said this was good.

“We were written and talked about so much last time. Everyone wanted to talk to us, get us to talk to about how confident we were of winning… all of that adds to the pressure. This time though that much expectation is not there from us. And we have been pretty much away from the limelight. It is good to that we are left on our own. As if there is no pressure,” she said.