The fourth session of the RevSportz Trailblazers Conclave 2.0 was on ‘Legends’. Abhinav Bindra, Neeraj Chopra, Sourav Ganguly and Adille Sumariwalla were the speakers. Boria Majumdar was the moderator of this session.
Joining through a video link, Neeraj said he will be in best shape for Paris 2024. “I am training hard and feeling good. I feel I am yet to perform to the best of my abilities. I also get a feeling that this is the best prepared I have ever been. It will get better in the days to come. Competition will be tough. A young German has recently cleared 90m. And I will be defending my title. I enjoy this competition.”
There was talk on achievements, preparations and of course, handling pressure. Bindra said this is unavoidable at the highest level. “There will be pressure. Nobody likes it. The point is, you have to accept it. An athlete has to learn to coexist with pressure and find out a way to work with it. That can come only with acceptance and adaptability.”
Ganguly said the best way to strive for success is to get used to the grind.
“It’s like a board exam, for which you don’t prepare for three days but for an entire year. It becomes part of your system. You are well prepared, then there is no panic. And this is no rocket science. You have to keep doing the same thing every day. Also, one has to switch off at times.”
Sumariwalla, the president of Athletics Federation of India, said his job is creating the support system.
“An athlete must feel secure that his requirements are taken care of so that he or she can concentrate on what they are doing. We give them that and expect them to do their best. It may or may not result in a medal. We have to work on creating bench strength as well.”