PARIS: The quiet confidence of Swapnil Kusale stood out in every step that he took on Thursday. There were times when he was down on the leaderboard, but you could feel there was something special brewing.
No panic, just keeping an eye on the target and getting the job done, that's been the motto of the 29year and it wasn't any different at the crunch on Thursday.
"During a final everyone's heartbeat will rise. But I didn't feel different from any of the other finalists. We all started on the same level," said Swapnil, an Olympics debutant who qualified for the final in the seventh spot.
"I focused on controlling my breath and kept myself calm to shoot. I didn't have any targets in my mind. The idea was to just stay focussed on my shooting. I'm glad that I didn't look at the scoreboard," the Kolhapur boy added.
There was a group of Indian fans trying to push Swapnil on even when things were getting tough. From fifth to third was a steep climb towards the back-end of the match and the shooter said he drew energy from the support of the fans.
"To be honest, I didn't know about others' points and ranks. I continued to shoot with all my experience gained over the years. I was not looking at my performance, I just followed my process, I didn't try to look at the scoreboard and change anything," he said.
