Former youth Olympian Bharath Pereira looks forward to competitive 2024 season

Published at :December 21, 2023 at 7:35 AM

Modified at :January 14, 2024 at 12:29 AM

He became the first Indian sports climber to participate in the 2018 Youth Olympics.

Former Youth Olympian Bharath Pereira fell agonizingly short of reaching the finals in lead & bouldering at the Asian Games 2023. The athlete from Karnataka finished a respectable eighth in Boulder but fell below in lead finishing 15th. Scoring 59.9 points, Bharath Pereira, finished ninth and the other Indian in the fray, Aman Verma, finished a rung down.

The 23-year-old took up sport climbing at a pretty young age and in a decade-long career, has participated twice at the Asian Games. In the last edition in Indonesia, the youngster finished 10th – combining the scores of speed, lead, and bouldering – scoring 576 points. In the current format – medals are awarded separately for speed and lead & bouldering.

In an exclusive interview with Khel Now, Bharath Pereira, shared his views on the recent performance at the quadrennial extravaganza and the plans for the season going forward.

“It was a good experience taking part in my second Asian Games. In 2018, when the sport made its debut at the Asiad, I finished 10th and now, I have finished a spot above. Unfortunately, I had fever a the night before the competition due to which my strength reduced considerably. Of the routes that were provided in bouldering, one was purely technical and did not require much power.

“On the contrary, the other three routes were very physical which did not go in my favor. I could have qualified for the finals but my lead scores were poor and there was nothing I could do about that because we don’t have good facilities to train in India.

Before the Tokyo Olympics, only one medal was awarded for speed, lead, and bouldering. But, post Tokyo speed climbing is considered separate and lead & bouldering constitute as one event. “The format was different to the one implemented now. Back then, we had to compete in all three events – speed, lead and bouldering – but this time we had to take part in lead and boulder combined with speed being a standalone event.

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“Most Indians are good in the combined format (all three) and in particular are good in speed if we are considering combined events. Every athlete wants to see a standalone event and more specifically, speed climbers would want to participate in speed climbing and vice-versa. Lead and Bouldering are somewhat similar so combining them did not make much difference.

“Also, one major reason to combine all three events back then was – the sport was given only one gold medal per gender by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). So, the IFSC had to combine all three events with either of the three events getting left out. Soon after Tokyo, two medals were awarded to sport climbing for Paris, and possibly at Los Angeles, we can hope to see three separate medals being awarded.

Early career

“I have always been a lead climber and would train for speed only a few days before the competition. In 2013, a bouldering gym opened up in Bengaluru and then I shifted focus to bouldering. But whenever there was a national championship, we were pushed to take up speed as we lacked in lead and boulder compared to the former. This is one of the reasons why Indians got better in speed.

A few years later in 2018, the Bangalorean became the first Indian sport climber to qualify for the Youth Olympics held in Argentina. Bharath made it to the competition after putting up a good show at the Asian Youth Championship.

“I was confident of doing well in Youth Olympics but due to an injury couldn’t perform to my best. The injury was because I practiced speed for a longer time and then just a few days ahead of the competition worked out for lead & boulder which didn’t help my cause. From there, I learned a lot from foreign athletes who specialized in only one event and that is when I dropped both lead and speed and solely started to focus on bouldering.

“I wanted to chase what I was passionate for than what I’m good at. In the longer run, I can catch up and become successful.”

One thing that is talked about by several climbers is the route setting. Several Indian climbers in the past have spoken about the sub-par route setting in India. “At the Asian Games, the route setting was better than what we get in India. In particular, the route setting was very good in the finals but comparatively was less complex – in terms of reading a route – in the qualification and the semifinals.

“Reading a route” means in what way would I approach the endpoint most efficiently? There are different levels of reading the route. For example, beginners are told to focus on where to place their hands and legs first, and when there are complex routes they get to raise their levels. But one main problem is that we do not have good route setters due to which we are not able to solve complex routes.

India needs more commercial gyms for route setters to practice but in reality, we hardly have a few – let’s say 4 to 5 (good ones) which is not enough. And to be honest, the ones that are good in India would be the worst (least competitive) outside.

Lack of competitive game time this season

“This season, I did not take part in any of the world cups and the world championships because I did not have any sponsor and by the time I found a sponsor – Dream Foundation – the season was almost over. Until last year, I did not search for any sponsors, and I started searching for one only when I got selected for the Asian Games. After COVID-19, I almost quit sport climbing as I did not see much scope in it, but luckily my friends convinced me to stay focused.

“However, back then in 2018, I was very ambitious, and I thought in the next three years I would reach the top 30s in the world which is pretty difficult. Unlike other sports, being in the top 30s and 40s is a big achievement. For example, there have been instances where an athlete won a world cup today and finished 35th in the next one.

“The ambition I set then was pretty high and I sincerely did not know the difficulty level to get inside the top 30. I thought by working hard I could get to the position I wanted to but now five years down the lane, I understand that I need to work hard, and be smart and efficient simultaneously.

Overall, this year has been very good for sport climbing in India. Maibam finishing 31st at the world championships is a huge achievement. Aman Verma who took part in the Asian Games finished 27th; just a spot below from qualifying for the semifinals in a World Cup in China. If things go well, we all might train together and head to Japan for high-performance training at the start of next year, concludes Bharath.

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