Sajan Prakash was left wishing for stiffer competition than he had got in winning the 200m Butterfly gold in the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championship in Tashkent on Tuesday. Racing against the clock, he went all out but had to endure a heartbreak, finishing 1.32 seconds outside the Olympic Qualifying Time (A Standard) in the final.
Sajan Prakash – and his High Performance Coach Pradeep Kumar – would have ended up doing the math, an improvement of 0.33 seconds per lap will have earned the seasoned swimmer an automatic place in the Tokyo Olympic Games rather than endure a wait to see if he would be invited on the basis of the Olympic Selection Time and the world ranking.
The 1:57.85 that the 27-year-old produced on Tuesday was his third best time behind the 1:57.73 that he clocked in the National Championship in Thiruvananthapuram on September 23, 2018 and the 1:57.75 in the Asian Games in Jakarta on August 19 that year. Sajan Prakash clocked 1:59.31 in the Latvian Open Championship on February 28 this year.
Of course, Sajan Prakash breached the Olympic Selection Time (B standard) of 1:59.97 when he clocked 1:58.45 in the heats of the FINA World Swimming Championships in Korea on July 23, 2019. He was gunning for the Olympic Qualifying Time of 1:56.48 but had to settle for going faster than the B time once again.
Only 33 swimmers have secured the A Standard and Tuesday’s time put Sajan Prakash in the 83rd place in the 200m Butterfly event. A B Standard swimmer is only fourth on the pecking order behind all athletes with Olympic Qualifying Times (A Standard), athletes in relays and Universality Places.
Following the end of the qualification period (June 27, 2021) and in the event that the quota of 878 athletes is not reached, FINA will assess the number of athletes having achieved the OQT / “A” Time, the number of Relay-Only Athletes and the number of Universality Places. It will then invite athletes who have achieved an OST / “B” time, until the total quota of 878 athletes is reached.
Since the OST places will be distributed by event, according to the position on the FINA World Ranking of June 27, 2021, Tuesday’s performance will help him move from 77 on the World Ranking in 200m Butterfly to 33rd.
Kenisha Gupta clocked a Best Indian time of 57.42 seconds in winning the women’s 100m Freestyle while Shivani Kataria took the bronze in 59.62. The 18-year-old Kenisha sustained her consistent showing, improving on the 57.57 seconds she clocked in the SFI All India Invitational Championship in Bengaluru last month.
AS Anand (51.95 seconds) and Dinesh Adithya (52.07) finished third and fourth in the men’s 100m Freestyle event. Anand, who has a personal best of 51.49 seconds, was thrilled at being stopping the clock inside 52 seconds again, having timed 53.13 and 52.50 in the two events at home last month. Adhithya improved on his personal best of 52.13 clocked on March 29 last.
Image courtesy: Swimming Federation of India
