Self-talking Narmada brings the house down

Narmada Nithin Raju, a rising shooting star, shares her journey from self-talk to gold medals at National Games.

DEHRADUN: Even when she is supposed to be fully focused on the target, Narmada Nithin Raju constantly keeps talking to herself.

“I self-talk, it can sound crazy but I do it and it helps. Even in the final, I was telling myself, ‘it’s okay, you can do it, you just have to take a couple of deep breaths and you’ll be fine.’ And I was doing all that,” said the 23-year-old from Chennai, who brought the house down with her performance in the National Games shooting competition on Thursday, in a chat with The Hindu here.

Keeping her cool under pressure, Narmada shocked Olympians Ramita Jindal, who finished seventh in Paris, and Elavenil Valarivan to snatch the women’s 10m air rifle gold. While the big names appeared shaky, the Tamil Nadu shooter stayed steady and finished impressively in the 24-shot final.

A decent long jumper and sprinter at Chennai’s Kendriya Vidyalaya, Narmada even competed in district athletics competitions but it is shooting where she is shining bright now.

“We used to do balloon-shooting in Chennai which was pretty much exciting, it was a stress reliever too. I didn’t know a sport like this existed until Elavenil started getting World Cup medals and breaking World records,” said Narmada.

Elavenil’s father and Narmada’s dad were good friends and when Olympic medallist Gagan Narang’s Gun For Glory academy started in Chennai a few years ago, she was the first to join.

“Because of Elavenil and her dad, I had the opportunity to start shooting and in my first State competition, I had a gold (2019) and the feeling was something else,” she said. Now, Narmada trains with Elavenil and Ramita at the GFG centre under coach Neha Chavan.