Tokyo Olympics: Sajan Prakash Sets Indian National Record, Unfortunately Fails to Qualify for Olympics


Tokyo Olympics: Sajan Prakash Sets Indian National Record, Unfortunately Fails to Qualify for Olympics

Sajan Prakash

India’s Sajan Prakash set a national record in the 200m butterfly race and won gold in the process at the Belgrade Trophy 2021. The Olympic hopeful finished with a time of 1:56.96s, and broke his own previous national record of 1:57.73s from 2018.

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However, despite his best efforts, Sajan did not meet the Olympic Quota time, and failed to find a place at the Tokyo Olympics. He missed out on the Olympic Qualification time by a hair, which is set at 1:56.48s. This- A standard- time ensures that swimmers get a fixed place at the Olympics.

He set a time fast enough for Olympic Selection time- which is B standard- in the 200m butterfly. Swimmers with B Standard timings get a place at the Olympics only if the Olympic spots are not filled at the end of the trials on 27th June.

Tokyo Olympics Trials: Another Gold for India in the 100m Backstroke event

Srihari Natarajan at the Belgrade Trophy
Srihari Natarajan at the Belgrade Trophy but did not qualify for the Tokyo Olympics

Shrihari Nataraj had an excellent swim, as he won a gold in the 100m backstroke event. The 20 year old finished with a time of 54.45s, but did not meet the Olympic time of 53.85s for qualification.

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Ramy Al Ghaziri of Lebanon came second with a time of 58.18s and Djordje Dragojlovic of Serbia came in third.

Other Indians also Fared well at the Belgrade Trophy 2021

Maana Patel
Maana Patel

The young 16 year old Ganguly won a gold medal in the 4x100m individual medley with a time of 4:36.70s. Maana Patel took a silver medal in the 50m backstroke with a time of 29.79s.

Result of the Indian swimmers on day 1 at the Belgrade trophy 2021:

EventAthleteTimePosition
100m freestyleTanish Mathew52.39s7th
100m backstrokeShrihari Nataraj54.45s1st
200m butterflySajan Prakash1:56.96s1st
200m butterflyTanish Mathew2:13.55s3rd
50m butterflyTanish Mathew25.89s4th
400m IMShoan Ganguly4:36.70s1st
50m freestyle Kenisha Gupta36.65s4th
50m backstrokeMaana Patel29.79s2nd

Also read: Tokyo Olympics: Top 5 Indian athletes who failed to qualify for Summer Olympic Games

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