Sudha to seek endurance, not Olympic qualification
MUMBAI:IN an Olympic year, one would expect athletes to try and secure their qualification at the earliest, especially if there is an international event happening in your own country. But India’s Sudha Singh has different ideas, partly out of compulsion and partly out of choice.
The 33-year-old will look to win the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday alright, but won’t be seeking a Tokyo Olympics berth during the race. The two-time Olympian had suffered a stress fracture in her thighbone in September last year, forcing her to spend two months in rehab at the JSW Centre of Excellence in Bellary. She returned to the national camp in Patiala in December, and although she is fit now, Sudha wants to save her best showing for the Seoul Marathon in March with an eye on making the cut for the Olympics.
“I wanted to achieve the Olympic qualification mark in Mumbai itself if I had not suffered the injury. I’m fit enough now to win the marathon, but I don’t want to stretch too much at the moment, because I will be competing again in March in Korea. This marathon will provide me good practice for it,” Sudha said.
Sudha’s personal best came in the previous edition of the Mumbai Marathon, a timing of 2:34.56 that not only shattered the course record last year but also sealed her berth for the Doha World Championships.
The women’s qualification mark for marathon at the Tokyo Olympics is 2:29.30, and Sudha’s coach Surender Singh believes the best chance of her achieving that will be in the cooler conditions of Seoul than in Mumbai.
“She won’t go all out here,” Surender said. “We have chalked out a program for her, and in Mumbai we just want to check her endurance. Our main target is qualifying for the Olympics, and for that, we are eyeing the Seoul Marathon in March. By that time, she will be at her best physical shape. A target of 2.29 is not easy, so her run in Mumbai will show us where we are,” he added.
World Athletics has tweaked the qualification system for the Tokyo Olympics for various events. In marathon, an athlete can either make the cut by running within the qualification timing from January 2019 to May 2020, or the number of 80 participants can be filled up through athletes’ world rankings at the end of the qualification period. Thus, while the world body has made the qualification times tougher compared to that for the 2016 Rio Games, the other athletes can also have a shot with their rankings as each country can send only three participants. Sudha, though, is confident of booking her Tokyo berth by running under 2:29.30 in March.
“They (World Athletics) have increased the standard, which is good. But I believe I can achieve it in Korea, because the weather there is better and so is the competition. My best timing in 21km was 1:11s, and even in full marathons, my first half run takes about 1:14s to 1:15s. So if I can maintain that, I can run within 2:29s or 2:30s,” Sudha said.
Sudha has bagged two Asian Games medals in the 3000m steeplechase, a gold in 2010 Guangzhou and silver in 2018 Jakarta. However, she now wants to focus completely on the marathon, with her performances having drifted away in the steeplechase last year.
“My primary focus for this Olympics will be on marathon. There is no point focusing on both events, because then I end up under-performing in both. No doubt that medal wise, I have more chance in steeplechase. But I have nothing to lose in marathon. So, I am focusing on that currently,” she said.
Sudha wants to make it count in Tokyo. “I’ve participated in two Olympics, and in the third Olympics, I want to do more than just participate. I want to achieve something,” she said.