New Delhi: Impressed with the performance of the Indian shooting contingent in Gold Coast, ace marksmen Jitu Rai is worried about the adverse effect that non-inclusion of the sport in the 2022 Birmingham Games will have on young talents. "We win lot of medals in shooting (at the CWGs). Look at the kids who are doing so well and they will only do better as they go along. So it saddens me that shooting won't be a part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It will affect young medal prospects of our country," Jitu
18 April 2018 5:44 PM GMT
New Delhi: Having narrowly lost the Super Heavyweight (+91 kilogram) title at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (CWG), Indian boxer Satish Kumar Yadav is now looking forward to winning gold at bigger events like the Asian Games and Olympics.
Satish lost by a unanimous 0:5 verdict to Frazer Clarke of England after an extremely hard fought final in which both boxers pushed themselves to the limit.
While he is aware that the standard at the Asian Games — to be held in Jakarta later this year — will be several notches higher, the seasoned Indian Army boxer asserted that his experience at the Commonwealth Games will hold him in good stead. "I am happy with my performance at the Commonwealth Games. Now I want to win gold medals at the Asian Games and Olympics. However, the overall standard of boxers in those tournaments will be much better than what I faced in Gold Coast.
"The level of competition at the Asian Games will be very close to the Olympics and World Championships. Former Soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan along with Mongolia, Thailand, China and South Korea are among the big powers of world boxing," Satish said.
India's only gold medallist in athletics at the 21st Commonwealth Games, young javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has set his eyes at achieving a distance of 90m consistently to enhance his chances of winning a medal at the Olympics.
The 20-year-old from Haryana, who clinched the gold at 2016 World Junior Championships, produced a season best of 86.47 metres to claim the yellow metal at Gold Coast to became only the fourth Indian individual in the history of the Games to win a track and field gold.
"I had trained in Germany (under prominent coach Werner Daniels) for three months. I used to train and also cook my own food. I had to work hard for this gold and I hope this motivates others to also take up the sport and do well for the country," Neeraj said.
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