NAGOYA: She broke from the multiple interview sessions when her phone rang. She was excited and ran towards the bag that was lying on the side of the road. After a lot of thank yous and a brief conversation with her family back home, she came back to the waiting media to finish her interviews. It was getting dark and Elavenil Valarivan did not want to keep anyone waiting.
The sky broke into a million hues of red and there was a slight drizzle. The light rain was clearing and on the eastern side of the sky a full rainbow was pasted on the horizon — just like a stroke of a painter's brush. The setting was perfect just like Elavenil’s first shot in the final — 10.9. She was transported into her own la la land where nothing could go wrong. The first shot and a series of high 10s took her into the lead, which she maintained until the final four shots. She won silver in 10m women’s air rifle but it could have been gold if not for the final four shots. Japan’s Taichi Hinata, who was trailing until the final three shots, won gold. This was Elavenil’s second medal of the day. Earlier, she, along with Sonam Maskar, Vidarsa K Vinod, had returned with a combined tally of 1898 in the qualification stage to claim the silver medal.
Anyone following Elavenil knows how much the Asian Games medal meant to her. She has been winning countless international medals but the two eluding were the big ones — the Olympics and the Asian Games. On Sunday, just before the second relay in the qualification round she sat on her red suitcase with a vacant gaze. She had her earpods — which she calls her soulmates — on and was quietly waiting for her turn. Ready to test the process she has gone through in her career.
She has been consistent in the last one and half years. Paris Games was a painful heartbreak and she needed to find her bearings to get back. She admitted as much. "It was my first Games eight years ago and I have been consistent for over the last one and a half years," she said. "For me, it was more about giving my absolute best and I knew that I could do it, it was trusting myself to a level where I would say that everything would be fine, whatever comes to me. If I am doing my absolute best, there's no thinking beyond that."
It is not easy for shooters to continue for this long without doubt creeping in. She too had her ups and downs in her career. But she never left the process and trusted her technique and skill.
She remembered her grandmother on the biggest occasion of her life. There is quite an interesting anecdote she could not resist sharing. She would keep gifts for her every time she visited her grandmother after winning medals. And she was a big support. "She didn't realise what I was doing until I started winning medals," she said laughing. "She always thought my brother was the best and not until I started winning medals she knew that I was shooting. She was very proud that I was representing India."
For shooters, eight years is a long time. Most quit or don't even find space in the team. Pressure is incredibly high and career is generally short because of the tough competition in India. Elavenil has managed to withstand the storm of expectations too. She represented the country at the Asian Games eight years ago. "The first conversation I had with my coach was like it was eight years since my first Asian Games to my second. She called me before the competition yesterday (Saturday) and she told me 'Ela, you have trained. Give your absolute best and nothing more you can do on this given day, so all I would wish for you is to follow the process and trust in yourself.'"
Elavenil also spoke about her last few shots where she lost the momentum and finished second. "I think somewhere I knew that I was in the top three and although I was coming back to focussing on my process and technique, I got a bit relaxed," she said. "I really need to work on my finals some more and I think that that's all."
The two words Elavenil keeps repeating are process and trusts. Though process has been ingrained in her psyche, trust seems to be the latest addition to her repertoire. It's a word sports psychologists and coaches use to motivate athletes who are extremely talented and Elavenil is one of them. She is pretty quick through her shoots but on Sunday she took time which produced a 10. That seemed to be the turning point.
"I generally take my shots pretty fast and I only stop if I feel that you know there's something going on in my body that I'm not able to understand or if I feel the need to take a break," she said.
The Tamil Nadu-born Gujarat shooter has the belief back. With the LA28 less than two years away, she would train her gun at the next target, with more hope and of course ‘trust’.
