2021 Tokyo Olympics | Should be fit to win an Olympics berth by June, asserts Jinson Johnson

03/30/2021

Indian sprinter Jinson Johnson is confident that he is going to recover from his injury by June and qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The Kerala-based athlete is eyeing the Inter-State Athletics Championship, to be held in Bangalore as his comeback as well as book a Tokyo berth in the same.

Mid-distance runner Jinson Johnson injured his Achilles heel during a training session in Colorado Springs, the USA back in November 2019. Having taken a long time to recover from the injury, the 2018 Jakarta Commonwealth Games Gold medallist also skipped the recent Federation Cup in Patiala, owing to lack of full fitness.

But, the 1500m is confident that he is going to recover from his injury by June and qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The Inter-State Athletics Championships, set to be staged in June, later this year is an Olympic qualification event.

"I've started training hard and that gives me confidence that I will be successful in the next two months. By June, I should be fit to win an Olympic berth during the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bengaluru," said Johnson, to IANS.

Even though 2018 was an incredible year for Johnson, he broke a two-decade national record in the 1500m event at the Commonwealth Games and followed that up with a Gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, later that year. While he was expected to build on the form, the injury was a major setback for the athlete.

"It was a bad phase of my running career. But I'm happy to be back to good old running days. I started with moderate training in January that was the reason I skipped the Indian Grand Prix competitions. My aim is to avoid burnout and gradually regain my fitness," informed the runner.

The Tokyo Olympics qualification time is 3 minutes 35 seconds, with Johnson’s personal best was clocked at 3 minutes 24 seconds.