KOCHI: Racewalker KT Irfan was the first Indian track and field athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, but his last international event was in 2019. There were no events in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the 31-year-old is now hoping that he gets some exposure tours ahead of the Olympics and has even written to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Some of the Indian athletes are getting ready to go abroad with steeplechaser Avinash Sable set to train in Uganda ahead of the Games. Some of the relay squad — who will head off to the World Relays — could get some much-needed exposure ahead of the mixed relays (the men’s and women’s teams are yet to qualify). Irfan hopes that he can make up for lost time and get some exposure under his belt ahead of the quadrennial event.
“There has been no interruptions to the regular training. That is going on, but getting some international exposure and training would be very good ahead of the Olympics. My coach has written to the Federation about arranging something and we hope to get a positive response for this. But everything is so uncertain right now that it is hard to predict what will happen.
The only thing that can be done right now is to train regularly and hope for the best. But it will be great if I can participate in some big events to get into the flow,” Irfan told this newspaper. It will be the second Olympics for the Kerala-native after London in 2012. He had failed to make the cut for the Rio Olympics.When asked about what his targets were, he said the target was to better his performance in London. He had finished tenth in the event and almost a minute behind the bronze medallist.
“The first and foremost thing is to improve my performance from the last Olympics. I gained a lot of experience from that event and it’s been a lot of years since then. I want to do better than that and all my focus has been towards that. I have also worked on my technique to get maximum output. This Olympics would be different due to the lead up to it.
The Covid cases are a concern and everything is different compared to a regular situation but we have to make the best of the situation and just prepare,” he said. Irfan admitted that he didn’t expect to be out of action for so long but admitted that it was a situation that everyone has to deal with. “It’s something we all have to work around. The idea is to stay positive and mentally strong,” he signed off.