After Tokyo debacle, shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh reveals reason for his downfall
Keeping aside the disappointment of Tokyo, shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh has identified the areas he wants to improve upon. One of them is to lose weight and get fitter as he wants to qualify for Paris 2024 in two events - 50m 3P and 10m pistol - and for that, he needs to make changes in technique.
Going into the Olympics, India had great hopes from some of the shooters to bring medals for the country, and one of them was Aishwary Pratap Singh, who was in decent form just before the Games. He had won a gold in the 50m 3P event in the New Delhi World Cup in March, and had finished sixth in the Osijek World Cup in Croatia just before flying to Tokyo.
But during the Tokyo Games, he finished a lowly 21st and could not even qualify for the finals of his event. Even though he had a score of 397 in kneeling, 391 in prone and place in the final looked inevitable, in the standing round, Aishwary could only manage a score of 379, which pulled him down. But there was a backache issue that caused his downfall.Ā
"I started having back pain after reaching Tokyo. I could not even train well because of that, prior to the competition. I was under the supervision of the physio but things hardly improved. Maybe I could not give my 100 per cent because of that," heĀ told Olympics.com.
Now that the Olympics are over, he wants to address the issue. "I need to reduce fat and change my weapon. I wanted to change before Tokyo but had no time. There were back-to-back competitions. So I could not take the risk," he said.
"I have to make a routine now and focus on the events ahead. It feels strange and bad whenever that (the Olympic performance) comes to my mind."
"There was a lot of confusion until the last moment that who should go to Tokyo. So it was very important for me to perform and give my best after the lockdown. Even in the trials, I had to be on my toes. I wanted to change a few technical things but I did not dare do that. The weapon is one of them," he further explained.Ā
"It takes at least two-three months to get going again with the changes and I did not have that confidence that I can perform well immediately after incorporating those changes. At that time the most important thing was to get selected for the team for the Olympics."
Now, he has his goals clear for the next Olympics cycle and has already started working on them.
"I need to make changes to my prone. I lose seven-eight points now, which I have to make up on the other two positions. This has to stop. And, since this is a three-year cycle we have no time to take it easy. Toh bheer jana hai abhi sey. I also want to qualify in the 10m event as well in Paris. So I am focusing on two Olympic events instead of one," he stated.