WION Exclusive | ‘One match at a time’: How Tilottama Sen kept pressure away before her Asian Games silver

For Tilottama Sen, the road to an Asian Games medal was never about carrying the weight of what others expected from her.

Even before she stepped onto the range in Japan, the young Indian shooter was clear about the approach she wanted to take: stay in the present, trust her preparation and, above all, enjoy the competition. That mindset has now produced an Asian Games silver medal.

Sen, along with Ashi Chouksey and Vidarsa Vinod, helped India secure silver in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions team event in Aichi-Nagoya. The Indian trio finished behind China with a total of 1,763 points. Sen was also India's top performer in the team qualification, shooting 590. Yet when Sen spoke ahead of her Asian Games campaign, the focus was not on medals or expectations. Her immediate priority was much simpler. “My next goal is to play the Asian Games,” she said. “I would just want to take one match at a time and just focus on what's immediately right now.”

It was a revealing insight into the mindset of a shooter who has been under the spotlight since a very young age. Sen had already competed at major stages early in her career and was once regarded as one of India's brightest young shooting prospects. But she said she had never spent much time wondering whether she had lived up to the expectations attached to that tag. “All that I feel is that just giving my best and just enjoying what I'm doing,” she said.

That ability to separate the moment from the noise has become central to her approach. Shooting offers little room for distraction. A single poor shot can alter the complexion of an entire competition, but Sen said she does not allow disappointing performances to linger for too long. “Yes, I do feel bad that I missed the medal or the match, but I don't replay it for a very long time,” she said. “I can't hold back on things that didn't go well because then I wouldn't be able to focus on what's ahead.”

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That philosophy has also shaped her transition from junior to senior competition. Rather than viewing the two levels as fundamentally different, Sen said she treats every competition simply as a competition, regardless of the age category or stage.

For her, the key is not to become consumed by the significance of the event. The same principle carries into her training.

Preparing for both 10m and 50m rifle, Sen described a routine built around warm-ups, breathing exercises and visualisation before moving into the technical demands of kneeling, prone and standing positions. Kneeling, she admitted, took the most adjustment. But perhaps the most important part of her preparation has been returning to the basics. “Whether it's a good match or a bad match, once the match is over, we always come back and work on our basics from the beginning,” she said, crediting her coach Manoj Kumar for helping reinforce that approach.

It is a philosophy that also extends to the biggest question surrounding her future: the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Sen knows the Olympic cycle is already on the horizon, but before the Asian Games she was determined not to let that future goal become an additional source of pressure. “LA is definitely going to be there,” she said. “But I don't want to take too much pressure about LA right now.”

Instead, there was one thought she wanted to carry onto the range. “I've got this opportunity and I would just give my best and enjoy the whole competition.” In Japan, that mindset has already delivered a medal. And with her Asian Games campaign still having been underway at the time of the conversation, Sen's focus remained exactly where she said it would be, on the next shot, the next competition and the process in front of her.