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Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash fell short of the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark, despite winning gold in the 200m butterfly event at the Uzbekistan Open Championships on Tuesday.
Improving his personal mark in the span of a month, Prakash recorded a time of 1:57:85s in the Olympic qualifier. The timing was 1:31s more than the 'A' standard qualification mark for the Tokyo Olympics.
"Today was a good sign of improvement. This is not my peak yet, when I peak after some skill sharpening, after that, I think it ('A' mark) will happen. I have to be patient for that," Prakash told PTI.
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The Rio Olympian achieved the 'B' qualification mark in the 200m butterfly last month with a timing of 1:59:31s at the Latvian Open.
Prakash, in a recent interview with Sportskeeda, revealed how the Rio Olympics experience has helped him reassess his approach towards the sport.
"Like anybody, the Olympics was my childhood dream which that day came true. It is the biggest meet ever in the world of sports and I was a part of it. I could see a lot of improvements that could happen after seeing the other swimmers there. I was more interested in learning from them and trying to improve. After seeing those swimmers, I could relate to a lot of the things that my coaches had been telling me which I then wanted to use to improve my own swimming," he said.
Four medals for India on the opening day of Tokyo Olympics qualifier
In other results of the day, Kenisha Gupta stopped the clock at 57.42s in the women's 100m freestyle event to bag another gold for India. She produced a mini upset by beating Olympian Shivani Kataria, who finished third after clocking 59.6s.
Anand AS won bronze in a personal best time of 51.95s in the men's 100m freestyle event. Tamil Nadu's Adhithya D secured fourth spot with a creditable time of 52.07s.
