CHENNAI: It had been quite an emotional journey for Sajan Prakash after failing to qualify for the Olympics in Paris two years ago. He is the senior member of the swimming team and has trained hard for what could be his last Commonwealth Games.
And even the 32-year-old swimmer knows that the CWG is not easy because of participation of top swimmers from countries like Australia, South Africa, Canada and England. He took a break and mulled on his future. It was last year when he started to make a comeback and it was in March that he managed to qualify during a competition in Singapore.
Keeping oneself motivated, especially when younger swimmers are flourishing is not easy. Sajan, however, finds novel ways to do that. “I motivate myself saying there is unfinished business,” he tells this daily from Glasgow a few days ahead of his competition. “I just want to give my best effort. I think for the Paris Olympics, I trained very hard, but couldn't put my best effort going into the qualification. So, I just wanted to come back.”
For a swimmer, a pool acts as a place where one finds the answer. Sajan, who hails from Kerala, says he found that strength in the pool. “So, I started training again. It was hard to catch up after the break, but I found my strength again,” he says. “I qualified in the Singapore Nationals in March for the Commonwealth Games by a small margin. But I think I can still improve.”
Sajan, now training with former Asian Games medallist Sandeep Sejwal, says they planned for a camp before the Glasgow event in Europe. “We went for a high altitude camp at Sierra Nevada in Spain and then we are here in Glasgow early. I think all these things will help going into the Games.”
There is a saying that in swimming it is hard to make a comeback if one misses training even for a day and Sajan missed months. That has not affected his form so far. “Everything was said before,” he says. “But who said that, why they said that, we don't know. Some famous people who were winning, they said that and they went. But then, everyone needs to understand that when you are on a break, you try to stay healthy, do some other activity and do the conditioning to maintain your athleticism. You need to know what your weakness is and keep working on it.”
Sajan feels training off the pool is also important because while training very hard one might overlook things that they should have focused on. The break apparently helped him to chisel those rough edges. “Because when you get into regular swimming, you are just focussing on those timings, which are very specific. We don't work on our weaknesses when we are training very hard. So, I did some kind of conditioning work by doing some other activities and mobility work during my break. And the rest helped me to recover well.”
“I started practicing only in early January 2025. But immediately, we went for the National Games where I was not at all prepared but still managed to give a decent performance,” says Sajan. “Then, we slowly started building. The main agenda towards the training was to stay healthy, not to push too hard early. But then, when we went to the Asian Championship, I had good timing, hitting 1.57s in the 200 fly after a long time. It was a positive sign. And then, we just carried forward from there.”
Sajan is looking forward to the Asian Games more than the Commonwealth Games. “In my event, I think the Asian and Commonwealth Games are going to be more or less the same. I am just going to race with world record holders or the finalists at the World Championships in both. It is going to be hard. I need to be at that level if I aim for anywhere close to the podium finish. Swimming 1.55s or 1.54s is only going to take me to the podium. I need to cut down, shave off some seconds from my personal best. Because my personal best is still not enough to medal.”
“I am preparing for the 200m butterfly,” he says. “I have entered myself in the 50m butterfly and 200m freestyle also. I am taking one event at a time. Commonwealth Games, let's finish first. We will see how it is going. I will reflect on that and based on it, we will see how training should be. But then we will be focused on competing at the Asian Games right after the Commonwealth Games."
Speaking about the next gen swimmers, Sajan says, "Everybody is young who is coming. And they are all like below 25. And if you ask me, we have a lot to catch up to these guys. Even to make the final in any events or to be in that level, to medal. We have a lot to catch up on. We need to work on a longer duration, longer period, aiming for these games. Because coming unprepared for these Games will not work anymore. We need to be more professional and productive in these preparations in the future.”
As for training, he feels even if facilities in India are better, but there should be more clarity. “First thing is we need more clarity and planning towards what we should do and what we shouldn't do. And funding, backing up that plan. I am with Inspire Institute of Sport and they are funding my programme. And they have the funds which can be utilised for my training and competitions. I don't have to worry about it. But not everyone is the same. Not everyone is having that opportunity. The talented swimmers should be in one place and they should just focus on training. We need longer term goals. And planning. And someone backing up that plan continuously for many months and years.”
As of now it is the Commonwealth Games for Sajan.