Tokyo 2020: I cannot thank Dubai enough in pursuit of my dreams, says Sajan Prakash

Kolkata: The Olympics swimming pool has been an area considered as out of bounds for Indian athletes, though the odd participant has often made a foray there. Sajan Prakash, a soft-spoken, lithe 27-year-old from the Idukki district of Kerala, however, has big dreams there in Tokyo.

Prakash stirred up the Indian sports fraternity last Saturday when he made history, becoming the first-ever Indian swimmer to breach the Olympic qualification time with an effort of 1:56:38 seconds in the men’s 200m butterfly event at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy.

There could be a second swimmer too in Srihari Nataraj, who on Sunday breached the A standard time by clocking 53.77s in the men’s 100m backstroke at the same event, but it will be confirmed only if FINA approves the timing achieved in time trials on Sunday.

Nataraj had come agonisingly close to the breaching the ‘A’ standard in the same event a couple of days back but missed it by 0.05 second after an effort of 53.90 seconds. His effort, which came in a time trial, has created a new national record now.

‘‘It feels great to reach the ‘A’ mark first time, which many of my colleagues have attempted before. Only a week ago, I came close to that time but it had been a progression over a period of more than one year. Before the first lockdown because of Covid-19 pandemic last year, my best was 1:57:73 seconds and I needed to clip off another 1.4 secs to qualify,’’ Prakash said during an exclusive zoom interview with Gulf News from Rome.

Last week, in the Belgrade Trophy, he had clocked 1:56.96 seconds to narrowly miss the qualification mark.

‘‘Last year, I got injured and had to start from scratch when I resumed training at the Aqua Nation Sports Academy (ANSA) in Dubai under coach Pradeep Kumar. In the first three months from August to October in 2020, I didn’t do any butterfly strokes at all,’’ said Prakash, who moved to the UAE to pursue with his training as the pools were closed in India due to the pandemic.

‘‘Then in the first qualifying meet in Latvia, I did below two minutes - it was a good sign as I did it without pushing myself. Gradually, I saw the changes happening and I was getting more strong in the water. Then came the Uzbekistan meet and I thought A’ mark was now within limits,’’ said Prakash, for whom it would be the second Olympics after Rio 2016.

Prakash cannot thank his coach Kumar, a Dronacharya awardee, and the contribution of the Dubai academy enough in the improvement of his performance graph. ‘‘You can’t really match the facilities in Dubai. The club had really worked hard and provided me with a good support system, while my coach is very passionate and has always pushed me. It’s now my duty to repay the faith,’’ he said.

With the qualifying mark under the belt, what is the way forward in the three weeks or so that Prakash has before him before he leaves for Tokyo? Set to return to Dubai on Wednesday, the swimmer said: ‘‘We have done all the work, not the target is to bring about the small changes - one kick extra, the turns. It’s all about speed now as if I can cut down 0.3 secs each in four laps, it will make a lot of difference to my performance.’’

The social media had been quite vibrant about his achievement over the last few days, with the one capturing public imagination was from industry baron Anand Mahindra, who said Prakash’s feat made him ‘envious’ as he tried to to master the difficult butterfly stokes himself in his youth without much success. Asked if the level of expectations have sky-rocketted after his ‘A’ timing, Prakash was realistic: ‘‘The timing has given me the self-belief. The job is tough as my first goal is to qualify for the semi-finals, which no Indian swimmer has done so far, and then make the final if possible.’’

A graduate in computer applications from Anna Malai University of Tamil Nadu, Prakash never lacked inspiration to fuel his dreams during his growing up days in Neyveli, Cuddalore, as his mother was a national level athlete herself. ‘‘It was a great plus point that my mother had an athletics background...she could understand the pain and joy of the process,’’ he said.

Any particular swimming legend who has served as an inspiration for him? ‘‘Michael Phelps is one swimmer who has always motivated me and will continue to do so,’’ he signed off.