Sajan in search of that extra splash

He took the country by storm at the 2015 National Games, became the first Indian to go below the two-minute mark in the 200M butterfly and was selected to represent India at the Rio Olympics under universality quota.

It has been over a year since Sajan Prakash lived his Olympic dream. Though his performance at Rio 2016 could fetch him nothing but the tag of an Olympian — he finished fourth in his heats — Sajan has gone on to make a name for himself at Asian level in the last 12 months.

“Swimmers recognise me. It’s no longer, ‘who’s this guy?’ They know me,” he says about his experience over the past one year. “In terms of quality and an overall package, I am a little behind (than the other swimmers in Asia). But I am happy that I have remained consistent. There hasn’t been a drop in my performance.”

The Kerala swimmer, who trained under one of India’s top coaches Pradeep Kumar, was one of the two swimmers from India -- the other being Shivani Kataria -- to be offered a FINA scholarship ahead of the Rio Games. The scholarship helped Sajan to move his base to Thanyapura Swimming Centre in Phuket, Thailand and train under Miguel Alvarado, a former national coach of Spain.

While the move has helped him stay on par with the latest techniques and maintain his level so far, it is the lack of progress that seems to bother his coaches. “Consistency is a good thing, but that’s not the only thing that we were looking to achieve. It was about going to the next level. That has not happened,” says Pradeep Kumar.

“The progress that we thought we could achieve with him, that hasn’t happened. It’s been close to 14 months (after the Olympics) and we were looking at him cutting down at least by another second in 200M butterfly, but that hasn’t happened.

“I think one big problem has been that we couldn’t plan his competitions well. This is the competition period and he has been racing without a break for four months. Ideally, we would have liked to have a competition and then assessed his performance, worked on it and then go for another one. But this time we couldn’t do that,” Pradeep explains.

Pradeep was talking about the phase that saw Sajan compete in four meets in the last four months. The 24-year-old kick-started his competitions at the World Championships in July, went on to participate in the Asian Age-group Championships in September, winning a gold (200M butterfly), a silver (800M freestyle) and two bronze medals (400M freestyle, 100M butterfly), travelled for the Asian Indoor Games — clinching a silver in the 100M butterfly — and was also at Bhopal for the recent Senior Nationals.

“It’s been exhausting. I am really tired. I have been living out of a suitcase, travelling to different places,” says Sajan. “But overall, it’s been a good season. The whole year I was training and then in the past four months, I have competed in four meets. I like this, I enjoy racing, so it’s been good to be on the road travelling to different places and competing. I see this as a good build-up towards the Asian Games next year. So, I have a few more meets lined up before the year ends, and I hope to continue doing the same next year too.”

While Pradeep laments the lack of preparatory time between meets, Sajan’s coach in Phuket, Alvarado believes his ward needs a lot of exposure to stake his claim at the international stage. “One of the things I have told Sajan is that he needs to compete more,” the Spaniard says.

“This year we have seen that. At the World Championships if people say he hasn’t improved from what they saw at Rio, then it’s because of this — lack of exposure. He has improved in other aspects of the game. So I am looking to get him compete at as many meets as he can. We are looking at the Singapore World Cup, another short-course championship there and a few more,” he explains.

The past few months have also seen Sajan working under Pradeep once again. At the national camp ahead of the competition phase, Sajan was back with Pradeep. And with results coming his way, his team in Phuket is contemplating making this a regular fixture. “We think Pradeep can fine-tune him. He was with Pradeep before the past few meets and results have been good,” Alvarado states.

“They have a really good relationship and that’s important. We think, he can do the base training with me and then Pradeep can fine-tune him, getting the best out of him. So far it happened by chance, but now I don’t want to leave it to chance. Going forward I want to make this a calculative decision.”

With the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games scheduled for next year, Sajan knows the importance of being in top shape. And with his eyes set at on an Asiad medal, Sajan once again is willing to put in that extra effort to make a difference.

“A medal in the 200M butterfly. That’s all I am working for,” he says.