It`s time to experiment for Ronjan as Olympic year begins

New Delhi: India`s shotgun shooter Ronjan Sodhi is confidence personified as he enters the Olympic year with a crystal clear game plan -- experiment a few things and save himself from burnout by putting a cap on the number of events he participates.

The Punjab lad will be country`s big hope at the London Olympics and his confidence is backed by some stunning performances in the last few years. He excelled in different conditions consistently whether it was winning gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2010 or the defence of his world title in 2011 in Abu Dhabi. Now that his current training regimen and technique has given him outstanding results, he won`t tinker with that but would try a few things before the Olympics. And the first opportunity for the experimentation is Asian Championship in Doha, starting next week. "This is the time I can experiment. I don`t want to experiment two months before the Olympics. There are not many things but a little adjustment with gun-setting and technique," Sodhi said before leaving for Doha. "I lost weight over the last few months. I am working on fitness and with that your gun settings change. I don`t want to experiment many things. Let`s see how it goes," he said. The Asian championship is significant for those Indian shooters, who have not yet qualified for the Olympics as it will be there last chance to do so. But Sodhi, who has already qualified, is also giving a lot of importance to the event, in which he will be competing for the second time -- the last time being in 2007 when he failed to qualify for Beijing Olympics. "Since it is the first tournament of the year, I want to start on a strong note. And it will be challenging since extreme windy conditions would be there," Sodhi said. Asked how he plans to keep his good form till the London Olympics, which are still seven months away. "I don`t want to exhaust myself. I don`t want to shoot throughout the year till the Olympics. I am concentrating more on training than on competing.” "I don`t think I will compete in all four World Cups, happening till the Games. I will pick and choose my tournaments," he said. Sodhi said he is better prepared for this year`s Games since the astonishing success in the last two years has given him confidence. "I did not have many wins under my belt last time around. But this time around, I am much better prepared than ever before going into Olympics. If I can get the same results as in 2010 and 2011, it would be fantastic," he said. Although Sodhi defended his World Cup title successfully last year but he had said that hitting bird targets was tough as they were very hard. The same targets will be used in London and asked how he plans to tackle that, he said, "I have spoken to Laporte people and I will start training on Laporte targets from March in Italy. My primary training will start only after that." "There could be some equipment change also to tackle the hard targets." Sodhi does not believe in spending too many hours at Range without focus, rather he would spend little but quality time while practising. "If I am training for just two hours, it will be 100 percent. There is not point spending six hours and not being there. The emphasis is on quality and not quantity," he said. PTI