I felt like crying tears of joy: Archer Ojas Pravin on winning gold medal
Aug 23, 2023
New Delhi [India], August 23 : Promising Indian archer Ojas Pravin shared the emotions he experienced after clinching his first individual gold medal at the World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin.
India finished the Berlin archery meet with four medals which consisted of three golds and one bronze. All the medals were won by compound archers.
Ojas defeated Poland’s Lukasz Przybylski 150-149 in a tightly-fought final to become the first Indian male archer to win a gold medal at the world championships.
The 21-year-old Ojas had earlier beaten Dutch archer Mike Schloesser, a former world champion, and Poland’s Przemyslaw Konecki in the semis and quarters, respectively.
After rising to the podium with the gold medal, the young archer described his feelings and said to ANI, "It makes me proud to have won a gold medal for India. It felt special to stand to the national anthem at the podium. It's hard to describe how it felt to have won a medal for the country."
"The feeling of standing on the podium cannot be described in words. I had goosebumps. I felt like crying tears of joy," Ojas added.
The young archer went on to describe how this medal will act as a major boost for the upcoming tournaments.
"This medal will give us huge confidence ahead of the Asian Games. Earlier, I won only team medals and this is my first individual medal. This has given me the confidence to win more laurels for the country," Ojas said.
He also described the impact experienced archer Abhishek Verma had on his career.
"He (Abhishek Verma) is my senior but it doesn't affect the equations we share. We share a great bond. He guided us and helped us prepare for the World Archery Championships. He even offered words of advice to us. He said that even if you are losing, just try to make things harder for the opponent. Don't let him win easily. So, that is the mindset we went with (into the tournament)," Ojas signed off saying.
