NEW DELHI, June 8
Two-time Asian Games champion shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor aims to breach a boundary which no other Asian athlete has even dreamt of achieving till now. He wants to throw the iron ball beyond the 22 meter line at the Paris Olympics which will get underway next month.
My target is to go beyond 22 metres at the Olympics. I am confident that I will hit my peak during the Games and the focus during training is shifted towards that. Everyone goes to the Olympics with the target of winning a medal. My only focus will be to breach the 22-metre mark. If that wins me an Olympic medal, I will be the happiest person,” he said. If he manages to get past that mark, Toor will smash his own Asian record of 21.77m which he had achieved early last year. Ever since winning his first international medal at the senior level – a silver at the 2017 Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, Toor has dominated the competition at the continental level and an Olympic medal will help him establish his legacy as one of the legends.
“I have won every thing in Asia. I have won gold at the Asian Games and the Asian championships. The only thing I have not won is an Olympic medal. It is the only thing missing in my career,” he said.
However, it won’t be a cakewalk as Toor has struggled to go past 21m since the latter half of 2023. His winning throw at the Hangzhou Asian Games measured 20.36 metres while an effort of 20.38 metres fetched him the fourth consecutive title at the recent Federation Cup, certainly a tall ask from the automatic Olympic qualification mark of 21.5m. But the Punjab athlete is confident of finding form at the right time after receiving from a back injury. “I was battling a back injury during the Federation Cup. That is why I could not go at full throttle. But my form has been picking up in recent competitions and my performances are also improving,” Toor said.
“I am placed comfortably in the Road to Paris rankings so qualification should not be a problem. In any case I intend to secure automatic qualification by going above 21.5 metres in the next competition,” he added.
Toor, who has been around the scene for more than a decade, has been witness to numerous landmarks. Out of those, the iconic moment arrived in 2023 when javelin star Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold at the Tokyo Olympics, infused a new found confidence among Indian athletes.
Toor is also riding high on this wave of optimism and confidence in the run up to the Olympics.
“Earlier our athletes were satisfied by just qualifying for the Olympics. It is no longer the case. Now Indian athletes go to the Olympics with a mission to win medals,” Toor said highlighting the change in mindset of Indian athletes.
