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Noise is now Ser’s kick

SINGAPORE — Quiet and unassuming, Jasmine Ser rarely makes bold declarations. So when the 23-year-old shooter says she is ready to win a medal at the Olympic Games, she means business.

SINGAPORE — Quiet and unassuming, Jasmine Ser rarely makes bold declarations. So when the 23-year-old shooter says she is ready to win a medal at the Olympic Games, she means business.

Fresh off winning the 50m rifle three positions gold medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Ser heads to Granada in Spain this week for the World Championships, which comes before the Asian Games in Incheon, where she is pencilled in for the 10m air rifle, 50m three positions and 50m rifle prone events.

Having had her hopes of medalling in her pet event — the 10m air rifle — at the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou dashed by a bout of flu, this week’s World Championships has taken on greater significance, given it is also her final tune-up before the Sept 19 to Oct 4 Incheon Asiad where she aims to exorcise the demons of four years ago.

Last month, Ser, who is looking forward to catching up with her friend, China’s 2012 Olympic champion Yi Si Ling, in Incheon, told TODAY her newfound confidence in dealing with presure-cooker situations has given her the belief she can be a medal contender at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Coping with noisy crowds at competition venues and the sport’s new format were also key to Ser’s new calm and confidence, helped by the Singapore Shooting Association’s coaches recreating the noisy atmosphere in training by blasting music from speakers and having the audience cheer loudly during local competitions.

“The difficulty lies in adapting to the noise,” said Ser, who is part of Singapore’s 18-strong Asian Games shooting team.

“My first encounter with such noise was at the 2012 Olympics and it was so loud ... I lost four points within the first 10 shots and it was quite a shock. I enjoy it now because it is more satisfying when you can perform well under such difficulty.

“The 10m air rifle will be very challenging (at the Asian Games) as it’s anybody’s game with the new format. I will take it easy and not over-train or overwork myself.”

Part of the former S$6.3 million Olympic Pathway Programme (OPP) to provide support to elite national athletes to achieve success at the London Olympics — the OPP was later amalgamated into the high performance template of the Singapore Sports Institute — Ser won the 10m air rifle and 50m rifle three positions pairs at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

But at the 2011 SEA Games, Ser finished second in the 10m air rifle final after noise from a photographer’s camera clicks distracted her.

Competing as a wild card in her maiden Olympics in London, she finished 24th out of 46 shooters, but bounced back to win a bronze at the World University Shooting Championships a month later.

“Everybody had expectations of me being in the OPP and people expected good performances, but I wasn’t ready for it,” said Ser.

“I started with some achievements but the next few years I didn’t perform well. But I never thought of giving up because I love the sport.”

Since graduating from the National University of Singapore last December, Ser has trained full-time with coach Kirill Ivanov and spent more time working on her weaknesses.

She added: “Everyone hopes to win an Olympic medal. But they just don’t say it. For me, even if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay. Nobody knows what will happen, but I want to do my best.”

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