Asiad heptathlon gold medallist Swapna Barman eyes Olympic dream

India heptathlete Swapna Burman

Asian Games gold medal-winning heptathlete, Swapna Barman's priority is now the Tokyo 2020 Olympics where she wants to realise her coach Subash Sarkar's dream by finishing on the podium. "If my sir wants to dream for me, I'm ready to be the part of that dream," said Swapna, who became the first Indian heptathlete to win a gold at the Asiad last month. However, her coach, without being too optimistic, explained that an Olympic medal is a far-fetched dream.

"Swapna has reached the 6,000-mark which is great by Indian and Asian standards, but she has the resources to reach a maximum of 6,400 points. "That should be enough to qualify for the Olympics. To get an Olympic medal, you need to score at least 6,700-6,800 points. At the moment, it's difficult, but nothing is impossible," Sarkar said. Commenting on her coach's observations during a felicitation function here yesterday, Swapna said: "Every athlete dreams of competing in the Olympics and win a medal. You need a coach like mine to excel in what you are doing. I want to follow whatever he says."

Swapna, who braved a toothache and a minor knee injury in her bid to win gold in Jakarta, has been having issues with her lower back since the 2017 Asian Championships. Her coach wants her to be injury-free. "She has some minor injuries. We are in constant touch with doctors in Mumbai. "My first target is to make her injury-free. We shall decide on targets only then. There are three big events in 2019 - the Nationals, Asian Athletics Championships and World Championships. Since the World event is in September, we have a year to prepare," said Sarkar.

Swapna revealed she received a call from noted Bengali filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee after her Jakarta exploits. "He [Mukherjee] said that he could plan a film on me if I had no objections. I was happy to know that. "Ever since I saw the biopic on Milkha Singh, I thought it would be great if anybody makes a film on me! "But I'm aware of the fact that I have to achieve certain feats to be there. The rest depends on my coach," she said.

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