2019 Asian Swimming Championship: Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj to aim "A" qualification time for Tokyo Olympics

With Bengaluru all set to host the 10th Asian Age Group Championships to begin on September 24, the national swimming coach Pradeep S Kumar expressed confidence that his swimmers will out-perform their previous medal tally of 5 gold, 13 silver, and 22 bronze medals. He also reflected the swimmers' excitement to take part at home for the first time.

The Dronacharya awardee Pradeep stated,

This is the first time that many of them are swimming such a major international competition at home and the mood in the team is upbeat. All the swimmers are high spirited and are well-prepared to improve the total medal tally from previous edition. Since the event is happening at home, there is no doubt that we will be aiming to finish on top of the medal tally.

With countries such as Japan, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, and Thailand competing with their full team, Pradeep said that he expects a stiff challenge for the Indian swimmers. "This will be a challenging meet with contingents from Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Japan and Kazakhstan bringing their full squad consisting of their country's best swimmers. Countries like Jordan and Syria also will have participants to watch out for. Competition, particularly in Group 1 Boys and Group 2 Girls will be tough but our swimmers have made good progress and we had a solid four-week national camp here in Bengaluru. Although the weather was slightly cold, I am satisfied with how the swimmers faired in their training," he said.

The nine-day tournament, which is a qualifying event for Tokyo Olympics 2020, will witness countries like Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh and also Syria vying for top honours.

Speaking about the ace Indian swimmers Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj who have secured B Qualification time for Tokyo Olympics and Virdhawal Khade who is riding on a good show at the recent Senior Nationals in Bhopal, Pradeep said, "These boys have good chances of making the 'A' cut. They are in good shape after the Senior Nationals and I am expecting them to better the timings they clocked in Bhopal."

On asked if there is going to be added pressure of performing at home, he said, "I don't think the swimmers should take any pressure. We have spoken about this a lot during the camp and the swimmers know they need to take advantage of the local support. We also have many experienced swimmers in the squad who have been motivating their younger compatriots so in that sense the entire team is geared up physically and mentally for the event."

The Championships will be held across four disciplines as swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming. The event will have participants in the open category (18 years and above), as well as Age Groups I (15-17 years) and II (14 years and below). In the previous edition, India won a total of 40 medals in Swimming with 5 gold, 13 silver, and 22 bronze medals, while in diving, India won 3 gold, two silver, and three bronze medals.