Sajan Prakash, is an Indian swimmer who specialises in freestyle, butterfly and medley events. Be it 2015 National Games in Kerala, where he set a record by clinching 6 gold and 3 silver medals and became the best athlete of the Indian National Games, held at Trivandrum, Kerala or the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics in the 200 meter butterfly event where he became the first ever Indian swimmer to breach the FINA “A” Olympic qualification time when he clocked an Indian national record time of 1:56.38 in the 200 m butterfly event at the 2021 Sette Colli Trophy in Rome and now at National Games 2022 in Gujarat his charisma has worked and he has become the gold medallist again!
We spoke to him exclusively, below are the excerpts:
Q. How does it feel to be at the National Games again after 7 long years?
A. First of all it’s a great feeling to be a part National games again and to represent my state and make its people proud is altogether very overwhelming. I am also glad to see that its happening again as many sports stars in this lapse of seven years have missed on this golden opportunity to perform at this honourable forum, but thankful to Gujarat, the state which took the onus and made it happen.
Q. What are your immediate goals?
A. My immediate goal is to rest for one month at least (laughs). Actually, I need to recover and rehabilitate for my next tournaments. I have a history of injury in the past as you know, so my first target is to work on improving the same. Next year Asian games will be my bull’s eye and then 2024 Paris Olympics. Adding on, the qualification is going to start in the month of March next year. So, anyhow I have to be perfectly physically and mentally fit for the same.
Q. How are the preparations going on for the Asian games and especially Paris Olympics?
A. As of now we have the targets, even though I am keeping rest but yes keeping the fitness in form is a mandate for me. Of course, because of the injury I have to take certain precautions so I will not use the shoulders much and give them time to heal because carrying the injury to CWG was not a good experience at all. I didn’t rest enough before that so do not want to risk it further. Also in National Games, performance wise it was decent but I had some health issues from the first day of the competition, I had abdominal pain for two- three days. This is the reason why I missed on an event on the second day there.
To regain confidence again was a hard task, but yeah the right guidance and my will power made it all happen, and ultimately I performed good on fourth and fifth days.
Q. How swimmer Sajan Prakash came back from an ugly injury to qualify for Tokyo Olympics?
A. Yeah, making a comeback after an injury and also after covid it was very challenging, we had only ten months in hands and when I started, it took me 3-4 months to just be back to basics, before going for qualification rounds for Tokyo Olympics I had to win three competitions then eventually I could see myself improving and coming back to the original form. Well yeah! Then I regained my every iota of confidence and was able to see my qualifying mark clearly.
Q. Who is your inspiration?
A. My inspiration is my Mother and my coach Pradeep Kumar.