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Lawn bowls captain Tirkey: Every other nation is now wary of Indian team
Quartet Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Pinki and Nayanmoni Saikia recently scripted history by winning Women’s Fours Lawn Bowls gold medal at the ongoing Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Rupa and Pinki talk about the change that their gold sheen has brought.
A game that wasn’t even heard by most is suddenly catching the fancy of many. Almost the entire nation is up on its feet and researching more about how lawn bowls is played, since India clinched its first ever lawn bowls medal at the ongoing Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG). The quartet of Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Pinki and Nayanmoni Saikia scripted history, by winning Women’s Fours Lawn Bowls gold medal at CWG.
Defeating South Africa in a thrilling final, the team’s captain, Tirkey, is brimming with pride as she says, “I can sense the other (country) teams being scared of our ability now. They have realised that India ab lawn ball pe haavi ho jaayega. A magazine in Australia even published a headlines stating ‘Sharp warning, the Indian’s are coming’. This is a big thing for us as Australia is the home of lawn bowls!”
Though the closely fought final saw India winning 17-10, but there were plenty of times when the viewers found themselves on the edge of their seat, all through the game. “There are moments when the nerves take over and your hands shake while holding the ball, but that is when I tell my team, we can do it. To win as a team, it’s important to encourage each other at all times and keep the self belief running all through the game. But to be honest, we are yet to believe that we have won the gold medal!”
Pinki feels the victory was destined! “This is a dream that we are carrying among us since a decade now. There have been occasions of us being so close yet so far. In 2010, we lost my 1 point. But we had to do it this time, come what may,” says Singh, who was introduced to lawn bowls when she was working as a PE teacher at a Delhi school. Going back to the match’s winning moments, Pinki adds, “All four of us could feel each other’s positive vibes and were chasing a shared dream. It was destined for us to achieve this feat. We fed off each other’s energy to have accomplished what we had set out for.”
The adrenaline rush and pressure of performing at the highest level is such that celebrating the win is not even the priority for the quartet at this time. Pinki shares, “Khushi toh is time pe bahut hai, lekin abhi celebrations ka pata nahi. Par haan, match jeetene ke baad humein laga aaj neend bahut achhi aayegi, even though I feel the excitement was such that it took a little longer to fall asleep!”
