"Ultimate goal is to qualify for the upcoming Asian Championship" - India's Kudo prodigy Sohail Khan looks to thrive in national competitions in Surat

Fifteen-time National Kudo champion Sohail Khan will compete in three back-to-back national tournaments this month.

The 2017 Kudo World Champion (MMA) will first participate in the 14th Kudo National Tournament 2023-24 scheduled between November 22 and 25. The next event is the fourth Kudo Federation Cup, where Sohail's bout will take place on November 26.

Just a couple of days later, the 23-year-old will move his focus to the 15th Akshay Kumar International Kudo Tournament to end the domestic season in kudo, a form of martial arts. All three events will be hosted at the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Udhana, Surat.

Speaking about the grueling season, Sohail Khan wishes to prepare well for the Asian Kudo Championships that will take place anywhere between February and March next year.

"I am honored to represent my state and district in three tournaments this month and will look to give my best in each fight," Sohail told Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview. "The ultimate goal is to qualify for the upcoming Asian Championship. It will allow me to showcase my skills on the international stage once again."

Sohail has trained rigorously in India's national capital for more than a month to bring amendments to his technical skills and ensure the same errors aren't repeated.

"Recently I have just gone for a training camp of one and half months in Delhi," he continued. "So I think I have overcome my fears in the fight and what I was doing wrong. And I learned from my past experiences. So I think this tournament is going to go well."

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Sohail Khan wants more international exposure to enhance his game style

Sohail Khan, who is dubbed the Golden Boy of Madhya Pradesh, participated in the sixth Kudo World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, in May this year. He made it to the quarter-finals but didn't advance further in the event after losing to Lithuania's eventual silver medallist Vilius Tarasevicius.

Throwing light on his experience of competing in his first overseas international event, the 2017 Junior World Champion said:

"I think he (Vilius) is 3 times or 4 times world silver medalist. He is a good player, with amazing reactions and all. The only thing I find is that now I need to learn more. It's my first international experience out of India."

"And this time I represented the senior category. So there's a big difference between India and internationally. What we see is that internationally it's not going to be as easy as we think of in India," he added.

Sohail Khan won the 2017 World Kudo Junior Championships when the tournament was staged in Mumbai six years ago. He defeated a Frenchman with a tremendous effort of 8-0 in the final.