Golfer Kapur eyes Tokyo 2020 berth

Fresh from his three Asian Tour titles last season, ace Indian golfer Shiv Kapur is now hoping to stay battle-ready to secure a berth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Kapur, who first won on Asian Tour in his debut season in December 2005, ended an 11-year title drought in the Asian Tour when he finally managed to win in April 2017.

The 36-year-old followed it up with two more titles to pocket his fourth Asian Tour title, becoming the only Indian to have won three times on the Tour.

After a prolific season, Kapur said the dream of representing the country in the Olympics seems to be a "realistic goal" now which wasn't the case one year ago.

"Now my next goal is the 2020 Olympics. I want to stay fit for that, try and get myself ready. This is one big goal for me," he said on the sidelines of Hero Indian Open launch press conference here on Tuesday.

"But it is easier said than done. A year ago, no one would have been talking about me being in the Olympics but now I am taking about it as a realistic goal. I hope I can peak at the right time and be in the kind of form I am right now, closer to Olympics," he added.

Kapur, however acknowledged that it won't be an easy ride to claim a berth in India's golf contingent for the Games, considering the rapid rise of young golfers like Shubhankar Sharma.

"The Olympics is still a long way to go. You want to be talking about Subhankar in the Olympic race three months ago or Ajeetesh (Sandhu) six months ago. You can never be complacent.

"Three or four months ago before the cutoff it's going to heat up. It's nice to see healthy competition and healthy rivalry," he said.

Kapur also insisted on the importance of maintaining the consistency in performance and not just think about results.

"The challenge is to keep your expectations down. You can't expect to have a season where you win three times.

"The goal is to continue playing well. At times you can play well and not win and at times you don't play your best but still win," he said.

"Wins are not always ultimate thing. The goal would be to try and improve a little bit in every area and if that brings more wins than its fantastic," he added.

--IANS

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