New Delhi, Sep 20: At 35, PR Sreejesh is standing at the twilight of his career and the Hangzhou Asian Games is most likely his last appearance at the continental showpiece.
But the veteran Indian hockey goalkeeper is determined to win the gold at Hangzhou to give himself a chance to earn a direct entry to the Paris Olympics next year, and do better there winning a yellow-coated medal.
Eight-time champions India had won a historic bronze at the Tokyo Olympics after 41 years beating Germany 5-4 in the play-off match.
“Obviously, next year’s Olympics is my main target and I want to change the colour of my medal there. But having said that, we need to qualify through the Asian Games (to Olympics) so that we get ample time to prepare ourselves,” Sreejesh told PTI.
Sreejesh reiterated that age is just a number for a sportsperson and gave the example of tennis great Novak Djokovic in this regard. “I am right now taking one game, one tournament at a time. As (Novak) Djokovic said, 35 is the new 25. So, I’m definitely there,” he said. (PTI)
