NEW DELHI:
Avtar Singh will be the lone Indian judoka at the Rio Olympics and the 24year-old policeman credits a positive approach for his recent surge in form.
Avtar, who competed in just six events in the past year, jumped from No. 200 to the current 70th in the ranking to be eligible for the continental quota in 90kg category.
Avtar is high on confidence having trained in Europe with some of the world's best judokas. "We returned from Hungry just two days ago. I trained with judokas from Georgia, Slovenia, Greece. It was a much-needed training exposure before the Games," Avtar said on the sidelines of TATA Salt's promotional campaign here on Monday.
Avtar, who hails from a humble background, is now supported by JSW Sports and works as assistant sub-inspector with Punjab police. "I am confident of giving my best in Rio. After all I will be playing for my country.".
"My parents are extremely happy with my performance. They always tell me to look at positives even if I lose," he added. Meanwhile, Avtar's coach
Yashpal Singh Solanki admitted that the training exposure came a little late for them. He, however, was not in a mood to complain."Avtar is as good as the best judokas but he needs some fine-tuning in his technique to match them. Our Europe sojourn helped him learn a lot. Ideally, this training exposure should have come two months back. Nevertheless, we made the most of it," he said.
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