Mumbai: Sajan Prakash and Shivani Katariya were handed wild cards to participate in the Rio Olympics 2016 which commence on August 5. The swimming Federation of India (SFI) president Digambar Kamal confirmed the news on Tuesday.
Both the swimmers were chosen by the universality rule which allows one male and one female swimmer to be chosen from the country if no one manages to qualify directly. Five swimmers– Sajan Prakash, Sandeep Sejwal, Virdhawal Khade, Supriyo Mondal and Saurabh Sangvekar — appeared in the Division 1 age group Long Course Competition, the last qualifying event, in Hong Kong on July 2-3. But all the five failed to complete in the timing required for the ‘A’ cut leading India to use it’s wild card entry for the same.
Image Credit: NDTV
SFI president, Kamal picked Sajan Prakash over Sandeep Sejwal even when Sejwal’s FINA points exceeded that of Prakash. It is believed that Prakash is in a better form as the national swimmer created history last year by winning six gold medals and 3 silver medals in the Indian National Games 2015 held in Trivandrum, Kerala.
Apart from the performance scale, it was also the FINA scholarship that went in favour of Prakash and Katariya to be FSI’s choice as the wild card. Where Sajan Prakash will represent India in 200m Butterfly men’s event, Shivani will represent the tricolor in the 200m Freestyle women’s event.