New Delhi: Sajan Prakash, who became the first Indian swimmer to secure a Tokyo Olympics berth directly, has placed the semifinals as a realistic target in the Japanese capital later this month. Prakash created history last weekend when he became the first Indian to achieve the Olympic ‘A’ cut, clocking 1:56:38 in 200m butterfly at the Settecolli Swim Meet in Rome.
“My realistic target at the Tokyo Olympics is to cut down another 0.5 seconds from my current time,” he told at a media interaction facilitated by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). “It will surely get me into the semifinals and once I get there, I will give it my best shot to reach the final as well.”
The 27-year-old, who will be competing in his second Olympics after Rio 2016, returned to the pool after eight months due to a neck injury and the lockdown. “When I returned to the pool, I had lost 50 per cent of my belief but the other 50 per cent I knew I could do it. But in sport, it’s that one per cent that matters. When I got back in the pool, I was not able to swim even 200m.
“Within three months I was able to return to swimming freestyle, I was not able to swim one stroke of butterfly. My coach (Pradeep Kumar) told me that if I wanted to qualify for the Olympics, I would have to do things differently. Even if I failed I had to try.”
The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics by a year came as a blessing for Prakash. During his rehabilitation and when swimming pools in India were shut due to the lockdown, the thought of an Olympic ‘A’ cut was far from his thoughts.
The Government of India funded a two-month training camp in Dubai for three swimmers including Prakash between August and October. “I had to literally start from scratch, I had to work on basics. We had to work on many things but thanks to everything coming together, today I have made it,” he said.
Prakash pushed for more biomechanic support in Indian swimming saying, “Swimming is a technical sport and sports science is very important. We need to have more sports science and biomechanics support, not just once in two years, or once a year. The biomechanics experts should be aware of what we are doing and help us make error corrections.”
Maana Patel and Srihari Nataraj will be going to Tokyo Olympics as well.
