Indian swimmers are not letting go of any opportunity coming their way to train, race, excel & improve upon.
Indian swimmers are back after winning 29 medals at the recently concluded Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships, FINA-accredited Olympic qualifying event held at Tashkent.
Indian swimmers won 18 gold, 7 sliver & 4 bronze medals. This was after a very long time that Indian swimmers got to participate in any international competition post lockdown.
The star performers were Srihari Natrajan & Sajan Prakash.
Srihari again improved upon the Best Indian performance in 50mters & 100meters back stroke. He clocked 25.11 sec in 50 Back & 54.07sec in 100 back stroke respectively.
Srihari clocked his personal best of 54.10s in the heats before bettering it to 54.07s in the final to win the gold. He missed the Olympic ‘A’ qualification mark in the event by just 0.22 seconds & on the other hand Sajan Prakash competing in his favorite event, the 200m butterfly clocked 1.57.85s, missing the Olympics ‘A’ cut which is set at 1:56.48s.
The good news is that, six of our male swimmers have qualified so far for upcoming Tokyo Olympics (B qualification timing). Six Indian swimmers are Kushagra Rawat, Sri Hari Natrajan, Advait Page, Aryan Makhija, Sajan Prakash & Virdhawal Khade and the bad news is that, till date not even a single female swimmer has even qualified B timings for Tokyo.
Kushagra Rawat is the only Indian swimmer who has qualified in 3 events for the upcoming Olympics & he is currently training in USA.
With the Tokyo clock clicking all eyes are now on the next Olympic qualifier event, four to five weeks from now. All are hoping that history will be created & ‘A’ cut for Tokyo Olympics will be achieved. Olympic A qualification, which will ensure direct participation in Olympics. Keeping a close eye on 29th June’2021 the deadline for Tokyo Olympics Indian swimmers are going all out for it.
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Competition was ok for men. Even though there was not much competition for girls, still our girls did very well. Over all our swimmers gave pretty good timings considering they are racing after long gap.
Pradeep Kumar, National Coach & Dronacharya Awardee |
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I am extremely pleased with the performance of Indian swimming Team. We are back with 29 medals. This meet was very important to boost the morale of our swimmers, who got to race after long time, due to lockdown & pools were shut. We had outstanding performance by Srihari in 50 & 100 meter backstroke, where he achieved best Indian performance. I am very confident that in the next Olympic qualifier four-five weeks from now if all goes as per plan Srihari will achieve A cut timings for Tokyo. Sajan Prakash has given good timings in 100 & 200 butterfly & he is also getting close to A cut in 200 butterfly. Overall I am very pleased with the performance of Indian swimmers.
Nihar Ameen, National Coach & Dronacharya Awardee |
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“It was an overwhelming experience for me to travel with team India again after almost 3 years, and to see how the younger generation of swimmers growing up as professional swimmers,
As a coach I am very happy to see Indian Swimming catching up with the world faster than ever before”. Sandeep Sejwal, Indian Team coach |
Indian Swimming Team Performance at Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships, FINA-accredited Olympic qualifying event (12th April to 17th April’2021):
| S.NO. | NAME | EVENTS | TIME | POSITION |
| 1 |
ADHITHYA DINESH |
50 mts Freestyle | 24.07 | 8th |
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100 mts Freestyle | 52.07 | 4th | |
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50 mts Butterfly | 25.16 | 2nd | |
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100 mts Butterfly | 56.47 | 5th | |
| 2 |
ANAND S |
50 mts Freestyle | 23.98 | 6th |
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100 mts Freestyle | 51.95 | 3rd | |
| 3 |
CHAHAT ARORA |
50 mts Breast Stroke | 33.80. | 1st |
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100 mts Breast Stroke | 1:16.15. | 1st | |
| 4 |
DANUSH S. |
50 mts Breast Stroke | 29.25 | 3rd |
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100 mts Breast Stroke | 1:03.50. | 3rd | |
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200 mts Breast stroke | 2:21.15. | 1st | |
| 5 |
DIVYA SATIJA |
50 mts Butterfly | 28.74 | 1st |
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100 mts Butterfly | 1:04.48. | 1st | |
| 6 |
KENISHA GUPTA |
50 mts Freestyle | 26.61 | 1st |
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100 mts Freestyle | 57.46 | 1st | |
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200 mts Freestyle | 2:06.66. | 1st | |
| 7 |
LIKHIT S.P. |
50 mts Breast Stroke | 28.19 | 2nd |
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100 mts Breast Stroke | 1:02.05. | 2nd | |
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200 mts Breast stroke | DNS | ||
| 8 |
MAANA PATEL |
50 mts Back stroke | 30.02 | 1st |
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100 mts Back Stroke | 1:04.47. | 1st | |
| 9 |
SAJAN PRAKASH |
100 mts Butterfly | 53.69 | 1st |
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200 mts Butterfly | 1:57.84. | 1st | |
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200 mts Freestyle | 1:50.74. | 1st | |
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400 mts Freestyle | 3:56.03. | 1st | |
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| 10 |
SHIVANI KATARIA |
100 mts Freestyle | 59.62 | 2nd |
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200 mts Freestyle | 2.10.23 | 2nd | |
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400 mts Freestyle | 4.38.05 | 1st | |
| 11 |
SRIHARI NATRAJ |
50 mts Back Stroke | 25.11 Best Indian Performance |
1st |
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100 mts Back Stroke | 54.07 Best Indian Performance |
1st | |
| 12 |
SUVANA C BASKAR |
50 mts Back Stroke | 30.28 | 2nd |
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100 mts Back Stroke | 1:06.17. | 2nd | |
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200 mts Back Stroke | 2:24.78. | 1st | |
| 13 |
TANISH GEORGE METHEWS |
50 mts Freestyle | 23.82 | 5th |
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100 mts Freestyle | 52.22 | 5th | |
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200 mts Freestyle | 1:52.57. | 3rd |
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Dr. Meenakshi Pahuja, International Swimmer and Assistant Professor, Physical Education Swimming Expert & Sports Consultant Author, Swimming Statistical Bulletin www.indiaswimming.com |
