After missing out on the Tokyo Olympics, Sudha Singh shifts her focus to the next Asian Games

The last couple of months have been disappointing for India’s 2010 Asian Games champion in women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sudha Singh.

Uttar Pradesh’s 35-year-old athlete missed out twice on qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games. After competing at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games in women’s 3000m steeplechase, she failed to earn a berth for the third Olympics.

Speaking to Sportskeeda from Lucknow on Tuesday, Sudha said:

“I would say it was jinxed. I trained hard but couldn’t achieve my goal of competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games.”

She failed to qualify for the women’s marathon event for the Olympic Games in February. Despite the setback, she made another bid to achieve an Olympic Games berth in June. This time she shifted her focus to the 3000m steeplechase. However, even her second effort went in vain.

Sudha Singh's plans for the 2022 season

Putting her disappointment behind not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games, Sudha said she has now shifted her focus to the upcoming 2022 season.

“I’ve started training for the 2022 season. There are two important events: the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. My plan is to compete in both the competitions,” said the Arjuna Awardee in athletics.

Sudha said she will not aim to compete in marathon events at the Asian or Commonwealth Games. Sudha got a big break in 2010 when she won her first medal a gold at the Guangzhou Asian Games.

It was inspiring for many young girls from Uttar Pradesh as several of them took up the 3000m steeplechase event after her success. She also won a silver medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

“Marathon is unpredictable event. I trained hard but couldn’t clock good time in February this year. I’m yet to figure out what went wrong. Since I’ve won medals in the 3000m steeplechase at the continental level I plan to focus in the same event for the 2022 competitive seasons,” said Sudha.