Carolina Marin sets sight on gold at World Championship

Glasgow, Aug 21: Defending champion Carolina Marin eyes a hat-trick at the World Championship and the star shuttler feels she is better prepared than the Rio Olympics where she clinched a gold.

"It's been two months of preparation; I've prepared better than I had before the Rio Olympics," Marin told reporters in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

The Spaniard has cleared her intentions that she would settle for nothing less than a gold medal.

"My main aim is to fight for gold. I have some tough matches coming up but I'm not thinking of the title defence. I will take it match by match," she added.

Marin had to deal with nagging ailments on her thigh and they affected her performance as she could not win a title after Rio Olympics. She conceded two walkovers and also saw her ranking drop to No.4.

"The Olympics was a year ago. I have to forget that. After the Olympics, I had some injuries and couldn't do well and it was frustrating. Now I'm playing well again," said the former World No. 1.

The third-seeded player got a bye in the opening round and will open her campaign by taking on the winner of the match between Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin and Russia's Natalia Perminova in the second round.