Even my body was moved by the wind: Suresh

TOKYO: National archery champion, S. Suresh, did not expect rain and strong wind to completely extinguish the fire in his medal quest at the Tokyo Paralympics, let alone in the first round of the men’s individual recurve event today.

Although hard to accept, the 2019 world para-archery champion admitted that the two factors had contributed to him being shown an early exit, thus failed to bring home the desired medal.

Suresh, in his debut at the Paralympics, lost 2-6 to the Russian Paralympic Committee’s archer Bato Tsydendorzhiev in 1/16 elimination round at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field.

“I never thought that there would be rain and strong wind during the event, which caused my arrow to become heavy and miss the target. Even my body was moved by the wind.

“Earlier during training, the (weather) situation was different and I did well, but it was not the case during the actual event. Maybe it just wasn’t my luck,” the archer, whose weight is 53kg, told Bernama after the event.

Suresh said the lack of participation in competitions at the international level since 2019 following the global Covid-19 pandemic had also affected his performance.

He said most of the other archers had experienced playing at the international stage despite the pandemic and that surely gave them the advantage to compete in Tokyo.

However, the father of one said he accepted the results positively even though he knew many hopes and dreams to see him shine at the Paralympic Games were dashed today.

“I need to stay positive and not blame myself. Like my wife said, no matter what happened, I have done my best and I win or lose, I need to stay positive,” he said.

Kedah-born Suresh, who lost his left leg in a road accident when he was 13, also vowed to bounce back and collect as many points as possible from international competitions next year to enable him to quality to Paris Paralympics in 2024.

The 28-year-old athlete said the experience he gained in Tokyo would definitely be used wisely to face tougher competition and get a podium finish in Paris 2024.

“I will come back stronger, I want to prove something to those who underestimated me. Just wait and see,” he said.

After his dismal performance today, Suresh also pledged to improve his techniques and to get himself used to training under the rain and strong wind condition.

Nevertheless, he said he would take a break from training until the end of this year to be with his family in Kedah as the last time he saw them was four months ago.-Bernama