Manjit Singh sets sight on World Championships

Middle distance runner and men's 800m Asian Games champion Manjit Singh wants to show his mettle with a podium finish at next year's World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

"(My) next target is the Asian Athletics Championships and the World Athletics Championships in 2019. The target will be to grab a medal there and qualify for the (2020 Tokyo) Olympics and from there begin preparations for the Olympics", Singh told reporters here.

29-year-old Manjit, a native of village Ujhana in Jind district of Haryana, was speaking to journalists Wednesday night when he was in the city for Glanbia's product launch event.

The Asian Athletics Championships will be held in April next year in Doha, while the World Athletics Championships will also be held in the same city in September-October, 2019.

"The main thing is to qualify for the Olympics," he stressed, adding there has been some change in his life after the success at the Asian Games.

Manjit turned into an overnight star after he clinched the 800m gold medal with a timing of 1:46.15s, in the recently held Asian Games in Indonesia while compatriot Jinsen Johnson got the silver.

So who would be his main competitors at the Asian and World Championships? "In Asian, athletes from Bahrain and Qatar would give a fight and also those from Iran.

At the World level, there are the Kenyan athletes," Manjit said.

"There has been a little change in my life.

Now the programmes are happening, by virtue of which I am having rest and recovering," he added.