Tokyo Olympics: Swimmer Sajan Prakash reveals the reasons behind his dream comeback
Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash is in the headlines, having qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 grandly, securing A-mark. While he has made a dream comeback to scale the charts again in the sport, he reveals its reasons.
FollowThe 2020 Tokyo Olympics is just around the corner, while the Indian athletes leave no stones unturned to get the preparations right. Meanwhile, Indian swimming has been in the headlines of late after Sajan Prakash booked his Tokyo ticket wonderfully, securing an A-mark to qualify for the global event.
A promising Indian swimming aspect, he suffered a terrible neck injury in 2019 that somewhat affected his career, followed by the COVID lockdowns last year that did not give him enough time to compete. However, despite all of it, he managed to exceed expectations in the qualifiers, as he reveals the reasons as to how he managed to make a dream comeback.
"There were many comments, even before the lockdown that I was old and am not getting any improvements. Keeping all that aside, I think the important thing was the support system believed in me. My friends backed me and I didn't lose hope in myself. I'm 27-year-old and a swimming event like this needs a lot of confidence in you. It's all the work we did, and we tried to stay focused on our goal and sticking towards our business, and not letting any nonsense come inside. With that, we could achieve it," he said in a press conference arranged by the Sports Authority of India, reports PTI.
"Exactly we have 20 days for the meet. We have done all the work before the qualifications; it's about working on small things. I'm working on the turns, increasing more distance on that one stroke so that I reach the wall quicker and turn. I'm increasing on some speed because I lack the front hand speed. I'm confident to cut down some more time, so that will give me a chance to be in the semi-finals and maybe in the final as well," he added.
ALSO READ:Â Tokyo Olympics-Â Srihari Nataraj becomes second Indian swimmer to qualify, here's his reaction
Meanwhile, on being asked about the most significant challenge the Indian swimmers face, he believes it lacks enough promising opportunities. "As for as the Indian swimmers are concerned, they don't lack in talent, but they don't have the opportunity to be consistent. We just have two competitions in our senior swimmers and that's not enough to go and test yourself all the time,"he continued.
"You need to have more competitions inside India. At least that's one basic thing we need to have. I think if that comes in and the government supports more towards that and more sports science and biomechanics coming towards one goal. I think there will be changes in the future. In my opinion, it's not just willpower only; it's a package. The sportsperson should have all the qualities to put together to achieve at that point. It's a combined effort. For me, it's the support system that brought me to this level," he reckoned.
Prakash finally shared what would be his target during the Games. "I would say cut down another 0.5 seconds and it's possible in this case, and that will take me 1:55:8, something that will surely get me into the semi-finals, and maybe, towards the final as well," he concluded.
NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitise, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona
