Dola Banerjee on arrival in the city on Sunday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Immediately after claiming the gold medal in the World Cup final at Dubai’s Medinat Amphitheatre on Saturday, an ecstatic Dola Banerjee had said: “Let’s see what sort of welcome I get back home…”

Well, to cut a long story short, the ace archer received a reception on Sunday at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport that is normally reserved for the Sachin Tendulkars. And it left the Calcutta-based girl starry eyed and slightly stunned.

Before being flooded by hordes of reporters and photographers, all a visibly tired Dola managed to say was, “It was very, very, tough…”

It took much cajoling and a lot more chaos before she finally settled down to take a few more questions.

Dola, who defeated world No.1 Natalya Erdyniyeva of Russia in the semi-final en route to her career-best achievement so far, said it was her toughest battle in the competition.

“I was lucky to survive the semis,” the 27-year-old admitted, adding “as it is, the World Cup final pits world’s top four and there is hardly any difference in terms of skill or temperament.”

Having won a gold medal in the fourth leg of the World Cup in Dover, England, Dola earned 25 points (overall 37) and cemented a place in the World Cup final, held between the winners of the four World Cups.

“Having scraped through to the final, I was a lot more relaxed. I knew I had to face a Korean and decided to give it my best shot. At least I was sure of silver…”

Dola laid her hand on the coveted gold, defeating second-seeded South Korean Choi Eun Young 110-109 in a tense battle in the 12-arrow contest.

“It took some time for me to believe that I had actually won the gold medal… It was so unexpected,” an overwhelmed Dola gushed.

Having beaten Yu Min Jin in Ulsan (first leg of the World Cup) and now Choi in the final in Dubai, this was the second time an Indian had bettered the Koreans this year.

Does this mean we are gaining an upper hand on the seemingly invincible Koreans?

“Maybe you could say that…” Dola smiled.

The Arjuna awardee also mentioned the contribution of Korean coach Lim Chae Woong, under whom she had been practising at the Tata Archery Academy (TAA) in Jamshedpur. “He has been of great help,” she said.

Right now though, the 27-year-old’s eyes are fixed on the Holy Grail — an Olympic medal. But she isn’t in too much of a hurry.

“Olympics is the obvious target… But I am not thinking of it right now… I will start practising in Jamshedpur three-four days from now. It’s not until January that the selection trials will start. That will be the time to get down to serious business,” said Dola, who’s all but sure of gaining an Olympic berth.

The win was all the more satisfying for Dola since she had struggled before setting off for Dubai with her new equipment. The earlier one had a crack in the handle. However, if she was tense, brother Rahul saw to it that it didn’t affect her too much.

Not only do they practise together at the TAA in Jamshedpur, being no mean an archer himself, Rahul helps her identify technical errors that otherwise would have been difficult for Dola to pick up.

“Didi and I used to practise for about eight hours a day,” Rahul said, adding: “She was upset after her poor performance at the Asian Championship. But we kept telling her that Dubai is all that matters… She was relaxed mentally in the title round and that, I think, is the key to her success.”