Sajan Prakash: Asian Games: Kerala swimmer makes historic final in Jakarta, family still affected in flood | Asian Games 2018 News

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JAKARTA: Sajan Prakash just made a swimming final for India after 32 years at the Asian Games, but is still stranded on how to let his folk know of his achievement back in flooded Kerala. When he took the pool in the qualifiers in 200m butterfly at Jakarta on Sunday, the 24-year-old native of Idukki district still had no clue where his maternal family was in the flooded district.

Prakash only learnt of the devastating flood in Kerala on Saturday, his mother having chosen to keep the news from him. His maternal home in Idukki - where his grandmother stayed along with her son's family - is close to the dam on the Periyar river. The sluice gates of the dam had to be opened after nearly quarter of a century last week due to rapidly rising water levels, causing heavy flooding.

"I still have no clue as to where they are and how they are," Prakash told after making the finals of the 200m butterfly, the first by an Indian in the event since the legendary Khazan Singh in 1986.

On the opening day of Jakarta Games, there was further good news from the pool, with teenaged Karnataka swimmer Srihari Nataraj also qualifying for the 100m backstroke final with a national record of 55.86 seconds.

Kerala is currently reeling under the worst monsoon floods in a century, with thousands displaced and many dead, but Prakash didn't let the crisis affect his performance. "All I know is that they are being taken to some safe place. I pray for their safety," he said, adding, "It was tough but my mother, who is based in Tamil Nadu, thought it best that I don't get disturbed in the run-up to my event. So I was told of it only after my grandmother and uncle had been shifted. I still haven't been able to speak to them, though. I have made a historic final, but I don't know how to tell them yet," he rued.


Prakash admitted he spent a sleepless night on eve of his qualifier -- worried about his family and nervous about the event. "I had trained very hard for this day. I was very nervous. But I guess the experience of performing under pressure helped me see this through," he said.


Prakash revealed how an unforgiving training programme has begun paying dividend in Jakarta. He trained "non-stop" in the last one year to deliver at the Asian Games. "I had several months of tough training. We used to train so much that I could not move my body. It would ache. Under the renowned coach Graham Hill I would train like a beast. I tried different things to improve as a swimmer. I guess that helped me qualify for the final," he said.


Having made the final grade, Prakash has now only one target later on Sunday. That is to emulate Khazan, who won a silver in the 1986 Asiad in Seoul. "I hope I finish on the podium, just like he did," he said before heading towards the warm-up pool for some practice before the evening's final.

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