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Indian para-swimmer Niranjan Mukundan is in a race against time to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympics scheduled for August 24. The Bengaluru native has already clocked a B qualification time of 33.01 seconds in 50m butterfly at the 2020 Skagerrak Swimming Championships in Norway. He is now just 0.11 milliseconds short of touching the A qualification time of 32.90 seconds.
However, with most of India under lockdown due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mukundan's chances of competing at the Tokyo Paralympics are starting to look bleak. He has already missed out on a World Series event in Lewisville, Texas after contracting the virus himself.
“It’s so uncertain now. I had a qualification event last month, but because I tested COVID-19 positive just a couple of days before departure, all of those plans went up in smoke. I was supposed to travel to the USA last month for a qualifying event,” Mukundan told Sportskeeda from Bengaluru.
Mukundan was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which a developing baby's spinal cord fails to develop properly, and clubbed feet. At the age of seven, he tried swimming after getting the go-ahead from his doctor. The Karnataka native soon fell in love with the sport, eventually representing India for the first time at the 2013 IWAS World Junior Games in Puerto Rico.
Niranjan Mukundan likely to miss World Series in Berlin
With the Lewisville event already done and dusted, Mukundan was hoping to travel to Berlin for the last World Series competition (June 17 - 20) before the Tokyo Paralympics. But with travel restrictions imposed on Indians by the German government, he is likely to miss that event too.
“I was planning to go to Berlin in June for the World Series but as of now the travel ban on Indians is still there and they are not giving short term visas. To make matters worse, the organisers have put in a 14-day quarantine mandatory for the swimmers coming in, which at this stage is not acceptable,” said Mukundan.
Currently, Germany is only allowing in its citizens or those possessing a resident permit. Several other European countries too have put India on their red list, and this has hampered the preparations of many Tokyo Olympic-bound athletes.
Niranjan Mukundan won four gold medals at the 2021 Nationals
The swimming community was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, as most of the pools across India were shuttered. Things began to look up for Mukundan in 2021 as he was able to resume training. He even participated in the Nationals in March, claiming five medals (four gold, one silver).
However, with Karnataka having announced a full lockdown from May 11 - 24, Mukundan’s preparation has come to a halt once again. With nothing to do but home fitness routines, he remains in constant discussions with his coaches as they attempt to seek out IPC-accreditated events.
“Since the Paralympics are happening at August end-September, the qualifying time I might have will be till mid July,” Mukundan said with a glimmer of hope. “The thought process would be to look out for a competition somewhere in June end or mid July. And then swing in to training and head to the country well in advance and take part in the qualifiers.”
