Uzbekistan Open: Tokyo Olympics berth still eludes Sajan Prakash despite second gold in meet

Tokyo Olympics-hopeful Sajan Prakash completed the double at the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships on Wednesday, as he clocked 1:50:74s to bag the 200m freestyle title.

He produced a mini upset by beating compatriot Tanish George Mathew, who finished third after clocking 1:52:57s. The win marked Prakash's second gold medal in two days as he climbed atop the podium in the 200m butterfly event on Tuesday.

Grateful for last night. #uzbekistanopen pic.twitter.com/yPsQ310AVg

— Sajan Prakash (@swim_sajan) April 14, 2021

Prakash was last seen in action at the Latvian Open in March where he bagged the 200m butterfly title after clocking 1:59:31s. Short of three minutes to achieve the 'A' qualification mark (1:56:48s), he achieved 'B' cut timings for the Tokyo Olympics in his pet event.

India wins a rich haul of ten medals on the second day of Tokyo Olympics qualifier

Youngster Kenisha Gupta continued her rich vein of form by beating Rio Olympian Shivani Kataria for the second consecutive time in the women's 200m freestyle event. The 17-year-old Kenisha touched the pad in 2:0:66s while Shivani finished second in a time of 2:10:23s. Kenisha had earlier blitzed her way to 100m freestyle gold by beating Shivani on the opening day of the meet.

14 April Uzbekistan Open Rich haul by Indian swimmers 50M BreastLikith SP -Silver Danush S Bronze Chahat A -Gold 50M FlyAdhithya D -Silver Divya S -Gold 200M FreeSajan P -Gold Tanish G M -Bronze Kenisha G -Gold Shivani K -Silver 200M BackSuvana B -Gold

— @swimmingfederationofindia (@swimmingfedera1) April 14, 2021

Likhit SP won silver in the men's 50m breaststroke event with a time of 28:19s. He was followed by Dhanush S of Tamil Nadu on the podium. Chahat Arora stole the show in the women's race by clocking 33.80s to win gold.

Meanwhile, Divya Satija powered to the finish line in 28:74s to grab the top spot in the women's 50m butterfly finals. Tamil Nadu's Adhithya D finished second with a creditable time of 25:16s. Youngster Suvana C. Bhaskar zoomed ahead of other participants clocking a time of 2:24:78s to win the fifth gold for India on the second day of the event.

Olympic 'B' qualifier Srihari Nataraj will be in action on Thursday in the 100m backstroke event. He achieved the 'B' qualification mark in the 100m backstroke last year, clocking 54.69s at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships. Nataraj will need to bring it down by 0.84 seconds to 53.85s in order to attain the 'A' cut for the Tokyo Olympics.