Guwahati: High on winning gold in the blue-ribbon women’s 100m freestyle event at the 36th National Games in Gujarat, promising Assam swimmer Shivangi Sarma now eyes a shot at the upcoming Asian Games in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next September.
At the Sardar Patel Swimming Complex in Rajkot, Shivangi clinched the gold with a timing of 58.77s, which was far below the national meet record time of 57.73, which she set at the 75th Senior National Aquatic Championship in Guwahati last month.
To put things in perspective, the qualification mark for the Asian Games 2022, stands at 56.07s, which no Indian woman has so far achieved. The national record timing of 57.35s is held by Kenisha Gupta. Interestingly, since 2006, no Indian woman has qualified for an individual event at the continental games.
For Shivangi to make it to the Asian Games, she has to cut more than a second and a half, which is a tall ask. The lanky Assamese swimmer is now counting on a few exposure trips to improve her timing ahead of the quadrennial event.
“The main event next year is the Asian Games in September, before that we will have a couple of overseas exposure tours where we will be competing with the international swimmers. After the off-season, we will be back in Delhi and plan accordingly with all the other Asian Games probables to move abroad for training,” Shivangi told EastMojo after inaugurating a swimming pool at the DownTown School here today.
Shivangi braved a shoulder injury to return with a gold and a bronze from the National Games in Gujarat. More than the colour of the medals, she said the focus was on improving her timing and getting the exposure to compete alongside the best swimmers of the country, including Olympian Maana Patel, whom she edged past en route to her gold medal win.
“It was an amazing experience as it was my first National Games, not just because of the medals or the timings I achieved but because of the experience of competing among the best swimmers in the country. Don’t think the colour of the medals matters much. For me, improvement of timing matters. I am extremely happy to improve my timings,” she said.
“At the international level, we don’t count the medals, we count the timings for which we get selected. Even if I won a bronze in 50m freestyle, I wasn’t satisfied as the focus was on improving my timing,” she added.
Elaborating on the injury which she claims had aggravated considering the limited two-week time period between the Senior Nationals and the National Games, Shivangi said she was happy to kick off her campaign in Gujarat with a bronze in the 50m freestyle event by clocking 27.21s.
“I had an injury a year back after which I had my rehab and was out for three months. It actually held me a little bit back, but I came back stronger at the senior nationals. But the two-week time to prepare myself for the National Games made things difficult. I had to go back to Delhi immediately for training and so my hand got back to the injury phase again,” she explained.
“So my coach and I had one thing in mind that I had to give it my best, which is why in the 50m event I didn’t get what I wanted but I came back on the last day with a gold,” she said with a smile.
A couple of days after settling for third place on the podium, Shivangi was determined to pluck the gold in her pet 100m event. And she did it in style by surprising the local favourite Maana in the final.
“I had to mentally prepare myself to get it as it was my main event. Something that’s gotten inside me that I couldn’t let go of as it was my timing, my event and my medal, and I had to get it. I had this challenge in my mind,” she said.
Her gold medal effort, however, was short of the meet record of 58.34s set by Shivani Kataria of Haryana in Kerala in 2015.
Later, Shivangi appreciated the efforts of the DownTown School to encourage students from a tender age to take up sports. “During my time in school, we did not have any of these pools or other sporting infrastructure to encourage students to take up sports as a career. This is a brilliant initiative from the DownTown school to motivate students,” she said.
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