The year 2016 is a big one for Nitendra Singh Rawat. Come August, The 29-year-old hawaldar will be part of the select few who will compete in the biggest sporting event in the world when the Rio Olympics flags off.
But it hasn’t come without sacrifices.
“I had to postpone my wedding which was supposed to be in February for my training. Maybe it will happen after September,” he said with a shrug and a smile.
It’s been a case of duck to water for the athlete who, started off as a cross country runner, breached the qualifying mark of 2:19.00 seconds for the marathon event back in October last year with a time of 2:18.06 seconds at the World Military Games in South Korea in his first competitive marathon ever.
Here in Bengaluru for the TCS World 10K run on Sunday, the distance runner revealed his pride in representing the country at the Olympics.
“I am very proud of qualifying and now, as we say in the army, I have a mission to make the country proud. Anytime you have your country’s name on your back, there is a matter of pride,” he said.
More importantly for Rawat, who trains under Surinder Singh in Bengaluru after shifting the training base from Ooty, it’s the fact that his performances have improved markedly since qualifying, that makes it all the more exciting.
He has improved to 2:15:48 seconds in the full marathon in Mumbai and feels that going below 2:10:00 seconds in the Olympics is an achievable target. He is keen to better the Indian record of 2:12.00 seconds set by Shivnath Singh in 1978.
