Ser gunning for Olympic medal, after qualifying for Rio
Shooter Ser says she's ready to deliver a historic Olympic medal in Rio
Shooter Jasmine Ser is usually philosophical when answering questions about winning medals, and rightly so.
After all, her sport is one where precision counts for everything - a mere fraction off the bull's eye could mean the difference between a medal and none at all.
But, after securing an Olympic quota place for Singapore in the women's 50m rifle three positions (3P) event at the Asia Olympic qualifying competition in New Delhi yesterday, the 25-year-old was bullish about her impending outing at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
"If you're asking me about winning a medal, I think I am ready," Ser told The New Paper in a telephone interview last night.
"Four years ago, I wouldn't have given this answer because I was still studying and wasn't really good yet."
"But, things are different now, in terms of my technical knowledge and skills," added the National University of Singapore graduate, who picked up the 3P event six years ago.
The Spex Scholar had been suffering from food poisoning in India for most of last week, and even received treatment in the hospital last Thursday before finishing seventh in the women's 10m air rifle event the next day.
While she was feeling better for the 3P event yesterday, she was far from 100 per cent before her competition.
Ser said: "I thought I was feeling better yesterday and ate pasta, thinking I needed the energy for today's competition.
"But it all came out during the night - I was up at 3am, 4am, 5am and 7am, and I didn't eat anything before my competition.
"So I was tired and hungry.
MIND OVER MATTER
"It was literally mind over matter for me during the competition - I knew yesterday that I must win today.
"I have the skills and I really wanted that win badly."
"So I wasn't thinking about how tired or hungry I was, I was just thinking of how to make every shot great."
Ser topped the qualifying round with 586 points.
The scores were reset for the eight-shooter final, and Ser was second after the first kneeling section, and then fourth after the prone component, but stepped it up in the standing elimination portion to win the event and seal one of three Olympic quota places available in that event.
Iran's Mahlagha Jambozorg and South Korea's Kyerim Lee finished second and third respectively and claimed the other two spots.
Ser, who competed at the 2012 London Olympics, is only the second Singaporean shooter to qualify for the Olympics, after Lee Wung Yew in 2008. And there was a third too, yesterday.
Barring better results in World Cup competitions in the coming months, Ser will be joined by teammate Teo Shun Xie, who also made Olympic qualification in the women's 25m air pistol event yesterday.
This is the first time Singapore have secured two shooting spots for the Olympics.
Reflecting on that achievement, Ser said: "This is a breakthrough for Singapore shooting and the result of all our collective effort, including a great high-performance team, in the past four years."
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