No Indian swimmer has ever achieved the A-mark Olympic Qualifying Time. It is this challenge that a bunch of Indians will hope to surmount at the 10th Asian Age Group championship which gets underway at the Dravid-Padukone Centre for Sports Excellence from Tuesday.
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The meet, which is returning to India after two decades (after Delhi, 1999), is a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The closest to achieving this dream is the trio of Virdhawal Khade, Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash, who will hope to capitalise on the home conditions and inch closer to the quadrennial extravaganza.
Khade clocked 22.44s in 50m freestyle at the senior Nationals earlier this month, which was just 0.01 second lower than his personal best. However, the A-mark for Olympics stands at 22.01, for which the 28-year-old needs to shave off a huge 40 fractions.
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The B-mark, which will ensure an invitation to the event if the total available quota places (878) are not filled, is 22.67.
Realistic
“Anything faster than senior [Nationals] is a realistic expectation,” he said on Monday. “That will also get me closer to the Olympic cut.”
Both Srihari and Sajan have achieved the B-mark, in 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly respectively. Srihari, in fact, has been in a record-breaking form leading up to the competition. But his personal best of 54.69, clocked at the World junior swimming championships last month, is a significant 0.84 seconds behind the A-mark. Yet, the 18-year-old was confident of bridging the gap.
“I am confident that the golds are going to happen but it’s the faster timings that I am looking at,” he said.
“Breaking national records consistently means I am in form. I am confident of getting the A-cut.”
Sajan, on the other hand, was more guarded, especially after his performance at the Nationals, where he came home in a disappointing 2:00.13, close to three seconds off his personal best (1:57.73) and a further second off the A-mark (1:56.48).
Among women, sprinter Rujuta Khade, backstroker Maana Patel and middle-distance swimmer Shivani Kataria are expected to swell India’s medal tally.
Pradeep confident
“We should win a handsome number of medals,” said National coach S. Pradeep Kumar.
“[At least] equal to what we won in the previous edition (40 in Tashkent). Also, it’s a high-level competition. So they will get pushed and chances of getting the A-qualification are there.”