New Delhi, July 30 (UNI): Sakshi Malik has a new goal – changing her medal colour at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 26-year-old wrestler disclosed her game plan on Tuesday after becoming the brand ambassador of Japan's sportswear and equipment brand Asics.
"I have to participate in world championships in Kazakhstan first and from here I would like to qualify for the Olympics championship. After that, I will have a full year for my preparation the Tokyo Olympics and I am confident that will change the colour of medal by winning a medal there," she said.
Sakshi is the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"I have started to work firmly on my weaknesses. I am paying full attention to that. I have completely changed the strategy now. My aim would be to play aggressively in the entire game. If I manage to play till six minutes in an aggressive manner then I can beat any opposition," said Sakshi, who won the trial for the World Championship recently in Lucknow.
Asked about her previous statement that she needed another birth to defeat Japanese wrestlers, she said, "I gave this statement in jest because at that time we were losing many competitions to Japanese wrestlers. But the media took it seriously. But now as we are defeating the wrestlers of other countries, the Japanese wrestlers too can be defeated. So, I don't have any worries about Japanese wrestlers now."
She said that Indian wrestlers will go to Kazakhstan two weeks before the World Championship to strengthen their preparation there.
She told that six top wrestlers in each weight class of the world championships will get an Olympic ticket and they would like to get it from Kazakhstan.
Sakshi described the three years after the Rio Olympics as unprecedented.
"In these three years, I got so much respect which I had never dreamt of. Didn't know how these three years went by. I'm preparing hard for Tokyo so that I can repeat Rio's success there. My only goal is to change the colour of my medal in Tokyo."
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