New Delhi, July 1 Siddharth Singh, an Indian Jiu-Jitsu fighter, expressed his determination to win a medal at the upcoming Asian Games, despite facing limited support for the emerging sport in India.
He emphasised that the Indian team is making every effort to excel and leave no stone unturned in representing the sport for the first time at Asian Games. Additionally, he shared his excitement about competing in China for the first time.
Last week, Siddharth won his 10th national level Jiu Jitsu title in Haldwani.
The nationals served as a qualifying tournament for the Asian Games, which will be held in China from September 23 to October 8 this year.
Jiu-jitsu is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds.
"India obviously wanted to send a strong team. That's why they organised these trials to find out who are the best champions of each weight class. There were four weight classes for men and four weight classes for women. I'm going in at 69kg as the winner of that weight category in the nationals," Siddharth told IANS.
"I also have two teammates who are going. In the weight class below mine, 62 kilos, we have a guy named Tarun Yadav and then we have a girl Anvisha Dey, who's going in at minus 48kg," he added.
He further said: "Like one of the things that we have struggled with because it's such a young sport in India, most people still don't know what Jiu-Jitsu is. We don't have the facilities, infrastructure, or anything. We don't have access to world-class trainers, coaches. So we're all self -taught. We don't have any external support. We haven't had too much government support as well because the sport has just now been recognised.
"So we are going to try our best. I know for a fact that me, Tarun and Vishal, we're going to do whatever possible to win a medal for India. But at the end of the day, it's a sport. It's a fight. Who knows what's going to happen on that day. But we are not leaving any stone unturned."
Siddharth also conveyed his enthusiasm for the upcoming competition in China, acknowledging the challenge of facing a hundred fighters. He said that it would be a tough task, but affirmed his commitment to giving his utmost effort to come out on top.
"The Asian Games are in China. I've never competed in China. So, it's going to be a new experience. I've been told that there will be about 100 people in my weight class. So it's going to be a difficult task, but I'm going to try my best. I really hope so. It comes down to obviously how well we perform," he said.
Upon achieving his 10th national level Jiu-Jitsu title, he revealed that he hadn't specifically trained for this tournament and didn't have extensive preparation leading up to it.
"Actually, I stopped competing in India, I was mainly going out and competing at the World Championships or the Asian Continental Championships. So I wasn't really training for this tournament. But then the Jiu Jitsu Association of India, reached out saying that they're organizing the trials for the Asian Games. And they've invited all the former champions of the last few years to compete for the qualification.
"Since I had not been competing in India. So I didn't know too much about who are the recent champions, who are the guys I'll be competing against. I didn't really have too much preparation for this, to be honest.
"So when the call came, it came with 10 days or two weeks' notice. There's no time to prepare for it. I was lucky enough to win all my fights by submission. I was able to finish my opponents," said Siddharth.
Asked about the training and preparations for the Asiad, Siddharth said the federation assured that the team would be sent to a foreign location for a training camp.
"We spoke to the president of the Jiu Jitsu Association, Vinay Kumar Joshi and he assured us that the team will be sent somewhere abroad for a training camp. I don't know exactly where. They asked me for a few recommendations, so I gave them a few recommendations of where the team should go. But I'm hoping as we get closer to the tournament, the team really needs that exposure.
"We have a very young team, most of the guys have never gone outside of India to compete. I really think the team will benefit a lot from going abroad, training with international fighters, training with international coaches. We will benefit a lot. I really hope they can find us a good place to go and train," he concluded.
--IANS
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