HITTING A BULL’S EYE

To hit a bull’s eye in the 10m air rifle event, you need discipline. Don’t get distracted. Don’t breathe too heavily. Your target measures only half a millimetre. Now imagine doing that 40 times in a row, on your way to a perfect score.

Only about a dozen women worldwide have ever pulled off this remarkable sequence, and one Singaporean — and a very young one too — joined their ranks in 2013. Not long after picking up shooting seriously, schoolgirl Martina Lindsay Veloso shot a perfect 400. She became the first marksman in Southeast Asia to do so, announcing her arrival on the shooting scene with a bang.

While most teenagers are juggling endless distractions, the Singapore Sports School student is a classic study of admirable focus. What sets her apart isn’t just talent but also attitude. Martina, coaches say, is someone who knows what she wants and really works tirelessly towards achieving it.

Just a few years ago, she was making a name for herself in the entirely different sport of taekwondo. But the seeds of her shooting career were sown after a visit with her family to a dimly-lit shooting range in Safra Yishun.

After some coaching from an official, she hit the bull’s eye at the range on her second attempt, an experience which filled her with unforgettable joy and excitement.

While making the switch to shooting was a difficult decision, Martina liked the placid sport because it depended more on mental rather than physical strength. She did not waver once she chose her target. Taekwondo’s loss became shooting’s gain.

Her new sport appeals to her because it is a test of many things. “For me, shooting is much more than a sport. Every time I compete, I feel I am facing all kinds of challenges — the opponents, myself, the venue, the weather, the ability to fully concentrate, the pressure of being watched,” she says.

Born to an engineer father and a housewife mum, the oldest of four children picked up shooting seriously in Secondary 1 after being offered a place in Sports School through a shooting programme conducted in her primary school, Innova Primary.

At the beginning, she wasn’t among the best. But coaches soon noted that her focus set her apart from the rest. Slowly she pulled away from the pack and now she is a world-class shooter, head and shoulders above her peers.

In 2013, she topped an event at the International Junior Shooting Competition in Suhl, Germany. Then she shocked 2008 Olympic champion Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic at the Munich World Cup in 2014 to take gold.

Now that she had announced her arrival in a big way, she would no longer be that unknown keen to spring a surprise. How would she cope with the new pressure? Very well, judging by how she did at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.

With a calm exterior which belied the nerves she was fighting to quell, she clinched a much-coveted silver — behind Switzerland’s Sarah Hornung but ahead of Germany’s Julia Budde. The way she came from behind to edge out Budde was particularly impressive, reflecting her admirable poise under intense pressure.