Seema Antil says Olympic gold is her goal

India's new-found pride Seema Antil, who stunned all by her gold-winning discus throw in World junior athletics championships in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday said she is fully geared to take up the Olympic challenge and pocket the elusive gold for India.

Antil, 17, became the first Indian ever to win a gold medal at a World athletics championship, when she hurled the discus to a distance of 55.27 metres to outclass her nearest Chinese rival Xu Shaoyang (54.41m) in the just-concluded World Junior championships.

"My next aim is to win a medal, preferably gold, for my country in the Olympic Games," a shy Antil said at a hurriedly called press meet in Delhi.

"Before leaving for Santiago, I had told my coach Jaswant Singh that I would win a medal. I was not sure of a gold, though. My performance was not consistent in the three rounds; I had done well in the first but gone down in the other two.

"In the final round, I was the last thrower and I was slightly apprehensive, but finally I did well to grab the gold," Antil, a Sonepat college fresher, said.

"She has raw talent and her speed is very good. I realised that there were some basic faults in her turn and I concentrated on removing these faults," coach Jaswant Singh said of his protege.

The coach said results began to show quickly in her case as he had done all the experimenting with Neelam J Singh all these years.