Pune: Swapnil Kusale got a hero’s welcome after his arrival from the Paris Games here on Thursday. Kusale, who had become the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal ( bronze ) in 50m rifle 3 positions event in Paris, was received by thousands of supporters and budding athletes at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi. “My dream is not fulfilled yet as I wanted to win gold.
I was not satisfied with the bronze when I saw the score after my last shot, but the fact that I finished on the podium made me make peace with the result,” Swapnil said after a felicitation programme organised by the Gun For Glory academy. The Kolhapur shooter said the crowd cheering for him in Chateauroux pushed him to finish among the medals after he slipped to sixth position in the final. “I was down in the final but the crowd sitting behind me were rooting for me.
That motivated me a lot and I tried to shoot good scores so that the crowd could cheer louder for me than the other countries’ supporters,” Kusale added. Kusale spoke about the sacrifices his parents made in his journey from an aspiring shooter to an Olympic medallist. “My parents did so much for my training.
They sold our piece of land and took loans but never let me know about these things,” he added. His coach Deepali Deshpande, who was present too, said the medal was a result of Swapnil’s discipline and hard work. “You cannot achieve anything if you don’t have discipline.
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