Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru
Bengaluru, May 15: Veteran Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash is chasing what he calls the most difficult “one second” of his career as he prepares for what could be his final competitive season in international swimming.
The 32-year-old swimmer is targeting a podium finish in the 200m butterfly event at the upcoming Commonwealth Games and believes shaving just one second off his personal best timing could place him among the medal contenders.
Sajan’s personal best of 1:56.38 came in 2021, and he now aims to breach the 1:55 mark — a timing that would have secured a medal at the previous Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
At the recent Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships, Sajan clocked 1:57.09 to claim silver, further strengthening his confidence ahead of the major events this season.
To achieve the marginal improvement, Sajan has intensified his training schedule, covering nearly 60 to 70 kilometres in the pool every week. He also underwent underwater technical testing in Mangaluru, where his swimming mechanics were analysed in slow motion to identify ways to reduce drag and improve efficiency by fractions of a second.
His preparations additionally included a high-altitude training stint in Bhutan, while another training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain, is scheduled before he heads to the United Kingdom for a pre-Commonwealth Games holding camp.
“You train every day like you are competing so that you can compete in autopilot mode,” Sajan said while speaking at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) in Vijayanagara, where he has been training for the past few months.
Sajan admitted that reducing one second at the elite level is an enormous challenge.
“After I first broke the two-minute barrier in the 200m butterfly, it took me nearly two years to improve further. At this level, every fraction matters,” he said.
His coach and former teammate Sandeep Sejwal said the biggest challenge at Sajan’s age is no longer training intensity but recovery.
“When he was younger, he could complete extremely intense sessions and repeat them the next day with the same energy. Now recovery takes longer,” Sejwal explained.
The IIS performance team has reportedly designed a highly personalised recovery and nutrition programme for Sajan, making exceptions to the institute’s general supplement restrictions in an effort to maximise performance gains during the final phase of his career.
Sajan’s journey has also been affected by injuries and burnout. He revealed that persistent shoulder and neck pain since 2021, combined with mental fatigue, forced him to temporarily step away from the sport for nearly six months in 2025.
However, the swimmer said the break ultimately helped him regain motivation for one final attempt at international success.
“I just want to push myself to end on a high,” Sajan said. “One last push.”