CHENNAI: As is the case with many of India’s athletes, swimmer Sajan Prakash is under lockdown.
The only difference is that Sajan is stuck in Thailand, away from his family. The swimmer, who had already achieved the Olympic B mark, had initially landed in Phuket to train and prepare for a series of meets during which he had hoped to attain the A mark as well. But then, the coronavirus outbreak wreaked havoc on his plans and all the meets that he was supposed to participate in were cancelled. And with India cancelling all international flights, Sajan is now stuck in Phuket at least for the next month.
Making things worse for him is the fact that all training facilities in the region too have been closed down due to the virus outbreak. “It’s manageable here,” Sajan told this newspaper. “Now it’s not a complete lockdown in the city. But the pools and institutions are closed so we cannot actually do our training. We do some dryland exercises in the house itself. It has exactly been one week since I last trained in a pool.”
It’s been a frustrating time for Sajan but he is hoping to make the most of it. “It’s annoying been not doing anything,” he said. “But I’m also just recovering from an injury. So I am trying to do all the rehab and make use of this time.”
In Phuket, Sajan stays in a boarding house with 18 other swimmers, so killing time is not a problem. But at the same time, he is trying to make full use of the time he has on his hands by reading up on the science behind his craft. “I stay in a boarding house, so it’s fun here,” said Sajan.”There are around 18 people here. We don’t have to eat food from outside — we have a canteen in our centre. So it’s all good for now. I am reading things about swimming science and we try to do some dryland exercises. And getting lots of sleep as well.”
The coronavirus outbreak has caused Sajan to miss around 3 qualifier meets over the past couple of months. However, the big one has been the postponement for the Olympics by a year. While Sajan believes it might end up being a good thing for him, he is concerned about its impact on other athletes. “I would say it (Olympic postponement) gives me more time to get better,” he said. “But I also felt bad for the others who trained for the Olympics. Many would have had different plans right after the Olympics. I don’t know how it’s going to be for others to wait for another year.” As for home and family, Sajan believes he would not be seeing them for some time. Even if the Indian government eases restrictions on international flights, the swimmer has no plans of coming home anytime soon. “I think it’s not a good idea to travel anywhere for the next three months. So I’ll stay here,” he said.