I have a lot of experience now, Vinesh Phogat hopeful of her maiden gold at Asian Games

I have a lot of experience now, Vinesh Phogat hopeful of her maiden gold at Asian Games

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Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat believes that, currently, she has the experience required to claim her first gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta/Palembang, starting August 18. In the 2014 edition of Asian Games held at Incheon, Vinesh had finished with a bronze medal losing to Japan's Eri Tosaka.

With a lot of experience accumulated over the years, Vinesh Phogat is quite hopeful of achieving her maiden gold at this event. Previously, losing to Japan's Eri Tosaka, she could no longer compete for finals in the 2014 Asian Games. She had to contend herself with a bronze as she won against Narangerel Eredenesukh of Mongolia in the bronze medal match.

“I have a lot of experience right now, and have started understand wrestling in general, as well as my opponents, a lot better. I wouldn’t want to restrict myself to just bronze this time around,” Vinesh told the reporters at a send off event organised by Tata Motors, Wrestling Federation of India's prime sponsor, in New Delhi on Sunday."Back then, I was quite young. Now, I have experience on my side, and would want to make full use of that. I will give my best to change the colour of the medal that I win, preferably gold, as there’s nothing that exceeds gold," she added.

In April this year, Vinesh was successful in clinching her second consecutive gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, while being a victor at the Spanish Grand Prix in July this year. She believes these achievements lead her to possess a positive mindset about the Asian Games.

“I had won gold at the Commonwealth Games, which boosted my confidence a lot. I started to believe that my preparations were going well. Then I travelled to Spain and gave my best there, exhibited all that I had practiced on the mat,” she said.

Vinesh had defeated Jessica MacDonald in the 50 kg freestyle event to claim her second gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, while overwhelming Yana Rattigan of England in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. She believes in respecting all her opponents she, rather than concentrating on specific opponents.

“All competitions are tough. It’s just the set of opponents which changes, and brings about a change in strategy as well. The competitors will be quite strong, given that there will be a number of Olympic medallists among the contenders,” Vinesh said.

Sakshi Malik recently, came up to speak against the negative attitude given to athletes who are unsuccessful in landing themselves any medal in the sports events. She believes every athletes wants to achieve medals, but if they dont, it can't be always attributed to lack of preparations. Vinesh stated that the expectations from her fans boost her forward and urge her to perform better.

“Whenever you perform well in a competition, people automatically start harbouring expectations from you. People expect you to carry that performance over to the next set of events. We try to fulfill the hopes and expectations of all those who bestow their love and belief upon us,” she said."Seeing people invest their faith in me automatically boosts my confidence, making me believe that I have the talent. I try to bring out that talent in training, and then eventually during the match," added Vinesh.

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