‘ CWG SUCCESS CONTINUATION OF A JOURNEY’

Mumbai: Tejaswini Sawant’s top of the podium finish at the Gold Coast Games was seen as comeback of sorts but the ace shooter, who was away for a while, looks at the Commonwealth success as a continuation of her journey. The Kolhapur- born Tejaswini shattered the Games record in the women’s 50m rifle three position event on her way to the gold medal and also bagged a silver in the women’s 50m rifle prone event at the CWG. “Actually, yes for others, who don’t know about me, it is a comeback. But I feel that my journey continued. I had taken a two- month break. I had taken a break due to family issues during the 2014 Commonwealth Games and other international tournaments and because of that gap, performance was not ( good) so I could not get selected for those Games. So, that year ( 2014) went slack,” Tejaswini said. “From 2015, I am number one in the India team, my performance was good. It is not that I have taken a long break and made a comeback, my journey continued. In that journey, this ( performance) came in the middle,” she explained. A gold medallist at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 10m air rifle singles and pairs with Avneet Kaur Sidhu, Tejaswini is also the first Indian to clinch a world championship gold, in 2010. According to Tejaswini, the CWG and the upcoming Asian Games are important steps for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. “My shooting journey is on and it will continue till I have interest. And a big part of it is the 2020 Olympics.”