Focus now on fitness, setting biological clock for Tokyo: Namita

Bengaluru, June 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) With less than 50 days to go for the scheduled start to the Olympic Games, the focus has shifted to maintaining peak fitness and ensuring the biological clock is set to the time she and her teammates will be playing in Tokyo, Indian hockey midfielder Namita Toppo said on Friday.

"Fitness is key area of focus. The weather in Tokyo is going to be quite challenging and our training sessions are now planned in such a way that our biological clock is set to the time we will be playing matches in Tokyo," said Namita, who along with the other players is currently training at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru.

A veteran of 160 international matches, Namita, who was a member of the Indian team that competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where Indian women competed for the first time in 36 years, said that from now on every single session was crucial with an eye on Tokyo.

"The players will have to give it their all in every single session. We have been working doubly hard and there is a great sense of competition within the core group at the same time there is a strong team-comes-first mentality among the players too," she said.

Namita said that internal matches were being organised regularly to build the momentum for the Games.

"We are playing a lot of internal matches to build that match momentum. There is just a lot of enthusiasm in the team with less than 50 days for the Games to begin and we are not letting any external factor [affect our excitement]," she said.

Source: IANS