Indian diver SHARMA hopes Wuhan can provide springboard for Olympic success
WUHAN (CHN) - India’s springboard diver Ramananda SHARMA is eager for his homeland of 1.3 billion people not to go unnoticed on the international stage.
SHARMA and his synchronised diving partner Siddharth PARDESHI have already made sporting history once for India when, in Jakarata, Indonesia, in 2018, they became the first Indian divers to compete at the Asian Games in 34 years.
Now they are building on that international experience at the 7th CISM Military World Games on their quest to become the first Indian divers in 55 years to qualify for the Olympic Games.
“Our practices are targeting the road to 2020,” SHARMA said. “I feel like I have to do better and I have to prove to myself and to others that India can do better than other countries.”
While divers from China, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and Malaysia are regularly among the medal favourites at major international competitions, the world’s second-most populous country has been largely absent on the diving stage for several decades.
That is changing as the Indian diving team has undertaken a rigorous training regime under Cuban coach Yoendris SALAZAR. The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games semi-finalist on the men’s 3m springboard has coached the Asian country's national diving team on and off since 2008.
SHARMA and his team-mates train for eight hours a day on Thursdays and Fridays, have training half-days on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, while Sunday is a rest day.
“We just practise, eat, and then rest. Nothing else,” SHARMA said.
A knee injury has kept SHARMA, who has been diving since he was six, out of training for three months and he only returned to the pool four weeks before the start of the diving competition at Wuhan 2019, where he is competing in three events. The 22-year-old finished 12th in the men’s 1m springboard and will also compete in the men’s 3m individual and synchronised events.
“I tried to seize the medal, but I was injured for three months so I could not do better,” SHARMA said of his dives on the 1m springboard, which is not included in the Olympic programme. “I am happy with my performance. Already this competition was better than how I dived at the Asian Games.”
SHARMA expects to find out at a world cup event in April 2020 if he and PARDESHI have managed to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“We think of each competition as if it’s our last competition and we motivate ourselves this way,” SHARMA said. “We just need to focus on our own dives and perform them, and have a little bit of luck too.”
(Source: Xinhua Info)
