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Bhogle travels to Bangalore and catches up with George at the Sports
Authority of India which serves as her training ground. In a long
discussion George, who struck bronze at the World Athletic Championships
in 2003, a gold at the Asian Games in 2002 and a bronze at the Commonwealth
Games in 2002, talks about her preparations for the Athens Olympics,
her training and her technique.
George strikes a note of optimism about her performance at the
Athens Olympics. “A medal at the Olympics is the ultimate aim.
It’s a passion for any athlete. I am doing nothing else but
focussing on it. Getting a medal at Athens will certainly be a great
feeling, not only for me but also for the entire nation. I don’t
want to even think of not being able to win a medal. Optimism and
confidence is very important for an athlete and I don’t want
any negative thoughts to come into my mind.”
Anju regrets missing the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “In India we
hardly have synthetic tracks. I was training in mud tracks and the
injury happened due to which I had to miss the last Olympics”.
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