Swapna Barman gears up for 2020 Olympics

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANSlife) Arjuna Award winner Swapna Barman, who became India's first heptathlete to win a gold medal at the Asian Games in 2018, is gearing up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and plans to work on her strategy.

"Practice for the Olympics is going on. I will work on strategy and will aim for a better performance than before. There's no point in giving full effort in practice for competitions in 2019. I'm doing 50-60 per cent practice along with rehab to recover from injuries," Barman told IANSlife.

While Swapna is not playing for competitions in 2019, she assures that she is fit. "I'm fit otherwise, but not competition-fit. I don't want to underperform because I haven't practised enough."

Swapna, who is originally from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, was recently in the capital for the launch of the VRCT jacket by global sportswear giant Adidas. Donning the redesigned varsity-style jacket by the brand that makes customised shoes for her unique six-toed feet, Swapna said that she is proud of the feats Indian sportspeople are making in the field.

"Watching other athletes, like P.V. Sindhu, perform well also boosts your morale. These days people are encouraging towards sports, and I think there is enough happening. Even in villages, people have sports on their mind."

Apart from practice and rehab, how does the 23-year-old spend her days? "Thinking about sports every moment of the day, plus singing, which I really like." she laughs.

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Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in.