Key Points

Maheshwari, who will be taking part in the women's skeet event during the World Cup in Cyprus from Wednesday onwards, recently spoke to ANI about her win at Italian Grand Prix, how it serves as a practice for the World Cup and her debut at Paris Olympics last year.

Speaking about her win in the Italian Grand Prix, Maheshwari said that it served as a match practice for her ahead of the World Cup in Cyprus, and she took part in the event to see where her game and training were at.

"Not such a big win as it is for Italian nationals, mainly. But there is a category for foreign shooters. I won there. It was just competition preparation for my upcoming World Cup, and I had gone there for practice. I just wanted to see where my training at and where I need to work since matches are different from training," she told ANI.

The competition took place from March 29-30 in Rome, and she stood first in ladies' competition and first in foreign nationals in qualification stage. She attended the event for sake of training purposes as it is for Italians and foreign shooters have a separate category.

Last year in Paris, Maheshwari had a decent debut at the Olympics, losing the bronze medal match in skeet mixed shooting with Anantjeet Singh Naruka to China's Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin by 44-43. In the individual competition, she finished at 14th place.

Maheshwari said that in Olympics during her debut, she did not know what to expect and the grandeur of the event was really big which made her enjoy it.

"The individual event went well. I missed the final by two points. It was a big learning. There was a mixed event as well. I had no break. I was able to use my experience from the singles event, be confident and work under pressure better," she said.

Maheshwari said that the whole experience was about learning, and for her first Olympics, it was a "rewarding" one.

"A close call for the medal, but a step in the right direction. Hopefully, with skeet getting more support, being understood, I would consider the Paris Olympics as a start to the next chapter," she added.

It was for the first time during the Paris Olympics that the mixed skeet team event was included.

Maheshwari said that while getting so close to the medal and missing out on it gave her a bit of dissapointment, but it also gave her the hunger to continue and made her realise her potential.

"You cannot be so emotional with the sport with the outcomes. You just dust it off and get up after falling down. There was the perspective of how it could have been better. It is only once in four years, had to wait for an entire cycle. I am more hungry and determined to approach the new season well," he added.

The 28-year-old shooter also feels that India is living in a golden age of shooting after its best-ever haul of three medals at Paris Olympics, including two bronze by Manu Bhaker, one each by Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh.

"Our shooters are world class and they are taking part in so many events. Rifle and shotgun shooters are world-class, are doing fine in world rankings. Our medal tally at international events is strong. All we lacked was the number of athletes and experience, now we are getting it. Shooting is entering its golden era. We had 21 shooters at Paris, the biggest-ever contingent of ours. We had players at all events, maxed out. It is a sign in itself," she added.

On her future goals, Maheshwari said that she wants to work on fine tuning her game, having a great Asian Games next year.

"I also want to win quotas for my country (for big events like the Olympics) and continue doing well for the game and my country," he concluded.

- ANI