Backstroker Srihari Nataraj and Butterfly specialist Sajan Prakash, chasing the Olympic Qualifying Times, will have to find their own pace in the Belgrade Trophy 2021 swimming championships in Belgrade, Serbia, over the weekend. They could end up using the event as a preparatory meet for next weekend’s more competitive Sette Colli in Rome, perhaps their last chance to seal an automatic Olympic berth.
The 20-year-old Srihari Nataraj had Turkmenistan’s Merdan Atayev pushing him in the 100m Backstroke final in the Uzbekistan Open in Tashkent in April. He went within 0.22 seconds of securing the OQT (53.85 seconds). The young Indian does not seem to have that kind of a competitor in Belgrade, his nearest rival having a best time that is 3.59 seconds slower.
Similarly, Sajan Prakash may end up racing just the clock in Belgrade – he is the only 200m Butterfly swimmer with a sub-2-minute personal best. Iran’s Matin Balsini, with a best of 2:00.50, may end up drawing from Sajan Prakash’s pace to edge ahead of Tanish George Mathew (2:02.71).
The meet could be of greater significance to the two women, Kenisha Gupta, 18, and Maana Patel, 21, and the three teenaged boys, Tanish Mathew George, Aryan Nehra and Shoan Ganguli as their competition could help them improve their times this season.
The lanky Mumba teenager, Kenisha Gupta, may find great competition in the 17-year-old Serbian freestyler Nina Stanisavljevic, credited with being more than a second faster in the 50m Freestyle than her own 26.61 seconds. The Serb has the advantage of having swum in four competitions since March this year but Kenisha Gupta can bolster her position as India’s premier woman swimmer now.
Maana Patel’s personal best time of 29.30 seconds, clocked in 2015, has helped her be listed as the third fastest entrant in the women’s 50m Backstroke where Nina Stanisavljevic (28.78) and Jana Markovic (29.11) have turned in faster times this year. Maana Patel will be hoping to make an impression by getting familiar with a sub-30 showing in Belgrade.
