Arjuna Award a great motivator: Rajpal
MS Unnikrishnan
Indian hockey team captain Rajpal Singh said winning the Arjuna Award was a great motivation for him. “Such awards give a big boost to your morale and motivate you to do better as they are in recognition of your good work on the field,” said Rajpal, after receiving the award from President Pratibha Patil at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan here today.
Rajpal, who stayed back to receive the award, said the present hockey team were a blend of youth and experience who play as a unit and he was hopeful that the team would do well in the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy, to be held in China next week. The other members of the team left for China on Saturday night and Rajpal will leave tonight.
The captain said the team would strive to do their best in the Champions Trophy, though their primary target would be the Olympic qualifier, to be held in February. ”Qualifying for the Olympics is our top-most priority,” he told The Tribune.
Rajpal and Sunil Chhetri were involved in a long talk as they dwelt on each other’s sport to catch up with the latest. Chhetri also echoed Rajpal’s view that the Arjuna Award was a “great motivating factor”.
“It has always been my dream to receive an award from the President of India. It’s the beginning of an interesting journey,” said Chhetri, whom Baichung Bhutia had described as the fulcrum of the present Indian team. He averred that Indian football was moving in the right direction and had a bright future if all the stakeholders worked in unison with the aim of putting the game on a pedestal.
“We are definitely moving into the right direction,” he said. “There should be no criticism, no negativity as the team has been improving. Our aim should be the uplift of soccer in the country,” stated the talented striker.
Badminton star Jwala Gutta was also pleased to receive the Arjuna
Award from the President. “It’s a great honour — a dream come true,” she said, flashing a bright smile. Jwala said though winning an Olympic gold was her ultimate goal, her immediate focus would be to excel in the two Grand Prix events — the China Open and the Japan Open, in September.
Jwala, who paired with Ashwini to lift the women’s doubles gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and a bronze in the World Championship a few days ago, felt she could have done still better had she got the services of a personal foreign coach of her choice, either from Indonesia or Malaysia.
“We get absolutely zero sponsorship despite our fine showings in the past few months. My game would have improved considerably had I had a foreign coach to polish it,” lamented the player.