Mission is to make country proud: Nitendra Singh Rawat

Bengaluru: 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 at the biggest sporting event in the world — the Rio Olympics.

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 on Saturday.

It’s been a case of duck taking to water for the athlete who, started off as a cross country runner and 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 and has recently shifted his training base from Ooty to Bengaluru, it’s the fact that his performances have improved markedly since qualifying, that makes it all the more exciting.

The long distance runner has improved to 2:15:48 seconds in the full marathon in Mumbai and feels that going below 2:10:00 in the Olympics is an achievable target and one that he is keen to do to better the record of 2:12.00 seconds set by legendary Shivnath Singh as the best time by an Indian marathon runner, set in 1978.

“I am a cross country racer and I started marathon only last July and luckily it’s been one better performance after the other. I am looking to finish 2:10:00 or below at the Olympics and I feel I can do that. It would also mean breaking Shivnath Singh’s record so that’s two things at once,” he added.