Need mental stability of different level for Olympic medal: Abhishek

He might have clinched his second World Cup gold last week but Indian shooter Abhishek Verma says he will have to achieve a “mental stability of a different level” to claim an Olympic medal.The 30-year-old from Haryana, who had secured an Olympic quota place by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal at the Beijing World Cup in April this year, won his second yellow metal in the same event at the Rio World Cup last week.The Indian also bagged a silver with Yashaswini Singh Deswal in mixed 10m air pistol and his performance has fuelled hopes of a medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games.”Shooting is more mental than physical. So for the Olympics, we will need mental confidence and stability of a different level. So I plan to do mental exercises, yoga and meditation as preparation for the Games,” Abhishek told PTI.
“I need to work on my overall training technique but the main focus will be on mental calmness. When you are in the final and all are shouting from the back, at that time you can lose focus and that is when you get a 9 or 8, so I need to focus on that.”In Rio, Abhishek had shot 244.2 in the 10m air pistol final to win gold, beating Turkey’s Ismail Keles (243.1) and teammate Saurabh Chaudhary (221.9).”The feeling has sunk in now. I was well prepared for everything. I have been practicing with my coaches according to my schedule. We had a coaching camp at Rio 15 days ahead of the world cup, so all these adds to the confidence and we all have performed well,” he said.India currently boasts one of the youngest shooting teams in the world and Abhishek said the healthy rivalry at home is helping the Indian shooters.”It is a good opportunity because there is such tough competition at home only. It gives us confidence and exposure,” he said.”From Asian Games, me and Sourabh are room mate in every training camp, every competitions, so we discuss our experiences all the time and it helps improve each other’s performance.”