Not much was expected from India’s swimming contingent with both participants Sajan Prakash and Shivani Kataria coming through the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) wild card policy. However, an incident which went under the radar could’ve effectively reduced the country’s only male Olympic swimmer’s timing yesterday.
Sajan finished fourth in his heat, registering a timing 1:59.37 seconds in the 200m butterfly, which was not very far from his personal best timing. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, he said, “Minutes before the event my cap broke and I had to swim without it, for any swimmer the cap acts as an aerodynamic outlet to help improve their timing. It’s not an excuse, but I’m sure my timing would’ve been much better if I had the cap.”
He was given a loose cap just before the race, something which understandably did not fit on his head as his own.
To the naked eye, the cap is just an instrument which reduces the amount of drag in your stroke, this making your stroke quicker. In fact most swimmers in Rio are using two caps for the events. He added, “Actually the cap helps your entrance and exit in the water, it makes that particular transition much more seamless than without a cap. I could have easily clocked a quicker timing. But as I said no excuses, now will target Tokyo and the Asian Championships later this year.”
Most swimmers including Michael Phelps use two caps, to make their entry into the water seamless.
Sajan finished a disappointing 28th, but now we know the actual reason for his slow timing. Shivani Kataria finished 41st in her event, missing out on a quarter-final spot.
He added, “Because of the cap I was very nervous and by the fourth lap I was dead. The real journey starts now, where I will be targeting success in November. I will use this experience in my future events as well.”
