Tilottama Sen (born 25 April 2008) is an Indian sport shooter from Bangalore.[1] In 2023, she won the silver medal in the women's 10m air rifle event at the Asian Shooting Championship at Changwon in South Korea, earning a quota place for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[2]
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| Born | 25 April 2008 Bengaluru, India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Shooting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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She is the youngest Indian to win a quota for the Olympics. If selected to the Indian team, she would have been the third youngest Indian at Olympics in Paris[3] but she finished fifth in the final selection trials on 17 May 2024 at Bhopal and failed to make it to the Olympics.[4]
Early life and education
editSen's family hails from Kolkata but are residents of Bengaluru.[5] Her parents Sujit Sen and Nandita supported her to take up the sport. She is studying Class 9 at Bluebell Public School, Bangalore.[5] She started with volleyball and karate[5] but shifted to shooting later on inspired by Abhinav Bindra’s exploits at the Olympics. Initially, her father had to use his provident fund and retirement savings to buy her equipment.[6] But soon she got support from the Reliance Foundation and TOPS programme.[7] She practices at the Sports Authority of India (South Centre) at Kengeri in Bengaluru[3] or at the Hawkeye Rifle Shooting Academy.[8]
Career
editIn february 2020, she joined Hawkeye Sports Rifle and Pistol Shooting Academy at Bangalore and trained under former National Certified coach Sharanendra K. Y.[9] In the year 2020 To May 2023 she trained under Rakesh Manpat and was inspired by Apurvi Chandela. She was supported financially by Manpat for her first international tournament in Germany in 2022, when the government or state did not fund her international tournament later she shifted back to Hawkeye Sports Rifle and Pistol Shooting Academy & continuing her practice for 2024 Olympics in hawkeye .[10]
She won gold medal at the World Championship in Cairo in the women's junior category in October 2022.[7] In November 2022, she participated in the individual and team events at the Asian Airgun gold in Daegu, South Korea and won two gold medals.[5][11]
In March 2023, she made her senior international debut winning a bronze in the ISSF World Cup at Cairo, Egypt,[3][5] despite a technical issue with her rifle.[6] But she missed the Asian Games selection trials.[12]
At the 2023 Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, Sen won silver in the 10m Air Rifle, earning India a quota place to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[13] An Olympic berth is won for a country and the federation decides the final team after selection trials.
Awards
edit- 2024: Sportstar Aces Awards 2024: Young Achiever of the Year (female).[14]
References
edit- ^ "Tilottama SEN". International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ "Tilottama Sen, Arjun Babuta clinch two more Paris quota places for India". Hindustan Times. 27 October 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ a b c "B'luru shooter, 15, youngest Indian to qualify for Oly". The Times of India. 28 October 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ Staff, Scroll (17 May 2024). "Shooting, Olympic Trials: Anjum Moudgil, Sift Samra, Aishwary Tomar, Swapnil Kusale book Paris berth". Scroll.in. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Teen dreams of Olympic medal after bagging bronze in Cairo". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ a b "From balloon-popping to Shooting WC bronze: 14-year-old Tilottama Sen is just getting started". ESPN. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ a b Bureau, Sports (18 October 2022). "Indian juniors bag three more gold in World Championship". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
{{cite news}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Kiran,DHNS, Sidney. "Tilottama turned hobby into shooting success". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ Feb 26, By Iffath Fathima. "She's a straight shooter". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Tilottama Sen youngest shooter in Indian squad". The Times of India. 10 May 2022. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
- ^ Achal, Ashwin (13 November 2022). "Tilottama Sen's dream run continues at the Asian Airgun Championship". Sportstar. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ "Only 15, shooter Tilottama Sen overcomes heartbreaks to secure Paris Olympics quota". The Indian Express. 27 October 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ^ Vimal Sankar (28 October 2023). "Teenager Sen among medallists as India extend Paris 2024 shooting quotas to eleven". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media Company. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ Sportstar, Team (8 February 2024). "Sportstar Aces Awards 2024: Tilottama Sen wins Young Achiever of the Year award". Sportstar. Retrieved 9 February 2024.