“We need to have more competitions inside India. That’s one basic thing we need to have. If that comes in and the government provides support towards that, and more sports science and biomechanics come in, I think there will be a change,” remarked Prakash, who finished 28th in the 200m category at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
India swimmer Sajan Prakash. Pic/AFP
Sajan Prakash, 27, clocked 1:56.38 in the 200m butterfly event of the Sette Colli Swim Meet in Rome recently to become the first Indian swimmer to breach the Olympics ‘A’ qualification mark. Riding on this performance, Prakash is now set to participate in his second Olympics, in Tokyo (July 23-August 8), where he is determined to make it to the semi-finals.
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However, Prakash, reckoned other Indian swimmers have the required potential, but struggle due to lack of competitions in the country.
No dearth of talent
“They don’t lack talent, but they don’t have the opportunity to be consistent. They don’t have that knowledge; nobody teaches them. I would say they don’t have the opportunity to go and race all the time. We have two competitions in a year for senior swimmers and that’s not enough to test yourself,” Prakash told mid-day, when asked about where other Indian swimmers are lacking, during a virtual media interaction facilitated by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Sunday.
“We need to have more competitions inside India. That’s one basic thing we need to have. If that comes in and the government provides support towards that, and more sports science and biomechanics come in, I think there will be a change,” remarked Prakash, who finished 28th in the 200m category at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The last year has been very challenging for Prakash. He suffered a serious neck injury in 2019 and from December 2019 to July 2020, he was out of action due to the injury and lockdown.
“When I got into the pool after eight months, I had lost 50 per cent of my belief. But the remaining 50 per cent told me that I could do it. At first, I was unable to even swim 200m. I had to take a break after every 25m,” recalled Prakash, who has three South Asian Games gold medals, which he won in the 200m butterfly, 1500m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay at Guwahati in 2016.
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Semis, the Tokyo target
However, Prakash’s coach Praddep Kumar showed him the way. “I was unable to perform even one butterfly stroke from August to October 2020. After that, my coach said, ‘if you want to qualify for the Olympics, you need to start thinking or do something more. This is not enough as this is at a very basic level.’ We kept working towards the target and made progress day by day,” said Prakash.
He is targeting the semi-finals in Tokyo. “My realistic target is to cut down another 0.5 seconds from my current time. That will surely get me into the semi-finals and once I am there, I will give it my best shot to reach the final,” added Prakash.
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