New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) Heading into her fourth Asian Games after winning a medal each in her three previous appearances, experienced compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam wants to focus on her performance rather than thinking too much about the result.
For the 30-year-old Jyothi, it will be a familiar territory in some ways and a new challenge in others. She is now part of a new Indian women’s team still finding its rhythm together.
“Right now, I’m just focused on giving my best at the games rather than thinking about any other things,” she said.
She said her preparation has centered around getting every detail right, both with her equipment and herself.
“We are working really hard, preparing ourselves, making sure that everything is good as part
of our equipment or be it ourselves and working towards it,” she said.
“Not only archery, like any sport, when we see someone playing, it seems really easy, we also can just do it. But it’s not the case; every sport has its own things, techniques and all. And once you start training or once you start, you get to know how hard it is,” she explained.
The women’s team has already had two opportunities to compete together at the World Cup stages, and those outings have helped the athletes get used to one another and build confidence as a unit.
“Coming to the team, it’s a new team for us because this is the first time that we got to play as a team, especially for the women’s team, I would like to say. And we have participated in World Cup stages three and four because for us, the games selection trials were completed in May, and we got two tournaments to participate in before the Asian Games.
“We are improving, we are working hard, and we are getting used to each other. And it’s just that no matter what the situation is, we are there for each other,” said Jyothi, who is supported by Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS).
While Jyothi is one of the senior members of the squad, she sees experience as something which is shared across the team rather than a responsibility resting on one athlete.
“I think all the team members are really experienced, I would say, in some sort of things because there’s no one who is representing India in the games for the very first time. Like it’s their first international tournament. They have been part of many international tournaments in previous years and this year too.” Jyothi said staying motivated comes from continually resetting her goals based on the importance of each tournament. This year, there was no ambiguity about the priority.
“The main thing would be just reframing your goals every now and then, depending upon what tournaments you’re playing and what is the tournament that you give the most importance to. This year we only had the Asian Games, which is having the utmost priority. The World Cups happen every year for us. This year it’s Asian Games,” she said. PTI PDS PDS DDV
