Sindhu targets medal at Olympics debut

Mumbai, May 6 (IANS) Top shuttler P.V. Sindhu on Friday voiced her excitement to be part of the forthcoming Olympics for the first time, adding that winning a medal at Rio will be a bigger feat than winning laurels at the World Championship.

“It's much more than World Championships. The ultimate goal for anyone is to get a medal in the Olympics where the conditions and environment are totally different. But first of all I am very excited. It's my first Olympics,” Sindhu said here.

Sindhu said it was good to have seven shuttlers representing India at the Olympics.

“It's great that seven players have been selected for the Olympics, including the women's doubles team Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa for the second time and the men's doubles team Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy for the first time.”

"It's also K. Srikkanth's first time at the Olympics. He too will be excited. I wish all of us play well and give our best. We have been training hard. We need to push ourselves more. We are doing training off and on court, but the main thing is to keep ourselves fit and healthy. We need to be healthy as well as injury free," she said.

Speaking on the preparations ahead of the Rio Olympics, Sindhu said that the upcoming Thomas Cup and Uber Cup will be crucial for the Indian shuttlers.

“Only a few months are left (for the Games) and there are some tournaments left to play. We need to be prepared for them as well as Rio. The next important events (for Indian shuttlers) are the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup finals.”

"We will be playing in Indonesia and Australia and then we will be having one month training. We are going to put the full effort for the Rio Olympics.”

Sindhu praised compatriot Saina Nehwal for making the country proud with top honours.

“It's always good for the country that she (Saina) has been doing really well and has brought many laurels. She has been achieving and achieved a lot for the country.”

"At the same time (looking at her feats), I feel I should play much better and work harder to prove myself. Basically she has been an inspiration. She has much more experience as a player and it's her third Olympics,” Sindhu concluded.