They are happy with the recognition and financial windfall that has followed their stupendous Commonwealth Games performance but Indian athletes are not too keen on sparing precious training time for the innumerable felicitation functions just ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.
They are happy with the recognition and financial windfall that has followed their stupendous Commonwealth Games performance but Indian athletes are not too keen on sparing precious training time for the innumerable felicitation functions just ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.
India notched up their biggest haul of 101 medals at the recently-concluded Delhi Games and are expected to translate their good show in China as well.
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But the CWG medallists have also been forced to mark out a few days for the felicitation functions being organised by different organisations at different places leaving them with little time to prepare for the "tough" Asian Games scheduled November 12 to 27 in Chinese city of Guangzhou.
"These felicitation functions are certainly interrupting our practice schedule for Asian Games, which is going to be really tough. We are required to go from one place to another, some of which are far away from our practice venue. So, undoubtedly, it is posing problems as we can't fully focus on our preparations," said shooter Samresh Jung, on the sidelines of a felicitation function. "Although, it is not mandatory for us to attend each and every function but we are asked by the federation to attend some of these," added Jung, who won bronze in men's 25m standard pistol (singles) event in the Commonwealth Games.
He further added that the shooters "do not have any idea" when they would be leaving for the Asian Games to be held from November 12.
"I have no idea when we are leaving for China. Probably, it would be on the November 8. You need to understand ranges so I don't know whether we would get enough time to get used to the ones in Guangzhou," he said.
The Indian shooting contingent, which landed in Melbourne for the 2006 Commonwealth Games about 8-10 days before the start of the mega-event, had a difficult time adjusting to the ranges as well as the weather that changes there every 15 minutes.
"Despite reaching Melbourne early, we took time to get settled as the weather was really unpredictable there, with it changing every 15 minutes. In China also the weather conditions are tough and it would be hard to adapt," said the Arjuna awardee Jung.
However, Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 77kg weightlifting, Ravi Kumar preffered to play down the issue of interruption in practice and expressed confidence of doing well during the Asiad.
"After any major event like CWG, the body needs at least one and a half months to recover but we are trying to do that in just a month's time before the Asian Games. And even though these functions are making it a little more difficult for us but we are adjusting our schedule as per the functions. "Whenever we have to attend a function we generally make use of our scheduled rest day to practice, and instead shift our rest day to when there is a felicitation," said Ravi.
To which, the CWG gold medallist in flyweight 52kg Suranjoy Mayengbam, added, "I am not letting these functions hamper my concentration much by adjusting my schedule accordingly."
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