Prep to achieve something at CWG matters the most says Sajan Prakash

The only Indian swimmer to have made it to two consecutive Olympics — Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020) — Sajan Prakash is now gearing for a busy year.

With Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) and Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, among other championships.

“After the Olympics, I had exactly one year [to prepare] for the Commonwealth Games. It gets too hectic, as there isn’t much time to rest,” says Prakash, who recently won the men’s 200m butterfly gold at the Danish Open swimming meet in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Talking about the win, he says, “Winning is always special and timing is something I’m working on the most. At the end of the day, preparation to achieve something at the CWG matters the most, more than the Danish Open or any other championship. Right now, I am a little behind, but it’s part of the preparation.”

With a vision to achieve big this year, the 28-year-old swimmer wishes to pass on his knowledge to the future generations for a better future of the sport in India. “My seniors gave me the advice, now, we need to pass this information to the next generation so that our sport progresses.

I have seen the sport from different levels, lower to higher. I look forward to achieving many more titles for our country in the future and hope [to see] someone else do it for India, too,” says the swimmer.

Moreover, having dealt with anxiety and mental block in the past, Prakash is keeping things realistic this time around. “When we set high standards for ourselves, we need to be very realistic on what and how we need to achieve them. In this cycle(of achieving more), I lost my mental peace, I forgot to be healthy and focused too much on the game. Being on a track of being happy and keeping healthy, things changed positively. Being healthy from mind is of prime importance,” he concludes.