Yogeshwar treating Olympics as his last chance

Sonepat: Set for his third Olympics appearance, Indian grappler Yogeshwar Dutt wants to leave no stone unturned in his quest for the elusive medal at the London Games and is treating the marquee event as his last chance.

"Olympic Games does not happen every year, it happens in every four years and I am lucky to God that he has provided me with the opportunity third time. I don't know whether I would be participating in the next Olympics or not, I just want to perform well treating it as my last chance," Yogeshwar told PTI during an exclusive chat at the SAI Centre here.

"This time I want to bring something for my nation. I am targeting gold in my category and I am working hard towards realising that goal. Sushil brought the medal last time, this Olympics I want to bring it. I am hopeful of 2-3 medals from wrestling. This Olympics would be my last with future generation performing well. I am thinking it as my last chance. The ultimate satisfaction would be to bring gold medal," he added.

The 29-year-old said the training sessions at US has helped his game a lot. "The training camp at the Colorado Springs helped us to get acclamitise to the weather condition, which would be similar to London," he said.

"I got a chance to test my skills against some of the Olympic-bound wrestlers at the camp which has helped me improve upon my foot movement, speed and ground wrestling. The foot movement is the most essential part of your game and you need to have a strong lower body to produce results at the the big stage. We would have to give our best at the London to clinch a medal," he explained.

Talking about the conditioning camp in Belarus, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist said: "The two countries fall in a similar time zone and it will help them in adapting to the conditions in London."

He added that there would be around 7 to 8 Olympic-bound countries at Belarus, which will help them to know their strengths and weaknesses. The 60kg freestyle wrestler from Haryana said he doesn't want to repeat his mistakes in Beijing.

"I lacked foot movement during the Beijing Olympics and I don't want to repeat that mistake again in London. Our speed and stamina, biggest strengths of the Indian wrestlers," he added.

Yogeshwar had won the gold medal in the 2003 Commonwealth Championship, beside winning the bronze at the 15th Asian Games at Doha.