Paddler Sutirtha Mukherjee believes winning the National Championship keeps her in good stead as far as qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics is concerned.
The Naihati-based Sutirtha secured the National Table Tennis Championships title, beating Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-0 in the women’s singles final in Hyderabad on Sunday.
She will now be playing in the Inter-Petroleum tournament in New Delhi and thereafter play tournaments in Portugal, Hungary, Oman, Qatar and the World Championships.
“Yeah, winning the nationals was very significant for me since there are not many days left for the Olympics. So, in that sense, this success certainly matters.
“But there is still a lot of work left. I have to do well in this Inter-Petroleum meet too, as also in the other tournaments that follow,” Sutirtha said from New Delhi on Monday.
She sounds confident of being well prepared for the Olympics qualifiers in Thailand this April. “I need to be on top of my game during the qualifiers,” Sutirtha stressed.
According to Soumyadeep Roy, who’s one of the Indian team coaches and also guides Sutirtha individually, a special emphasis will be laid on working on her fitness. Hiring a nutritionist for her is also in his scheme of things, Roy added.
“Despite being a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and a national champion, she still has no job. So, funding becomes an issue. Nonetheless, since this is the Olympics year, we try our best to do the needful for her. We’ve already got a fitness trainer, while we are also on the lookout for a nutritionist who can travel with her,” he said.
