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- Mar
- 31
“It wouldn’t have made a good impact to go on with Paralympics as planned,” says Para-swimmer Niranjan Mukundan
Bhavya Chand Niranjan Mukundan, who missed his Olympic berth by a whisk of .10 microseconds in the last qualification event, is sure of his qualification for the quadrennial event. Currently, Niranjan is learning new skills and doing exercises to stay fit in quarantine days.
Asian record holder Indian para-swimmer Niranjan Mukundan express his full support to IOC decision of postponing the Olympics and Paralympics 2020 games to next year due to the global pandemic COVID19.
When asked about his views on Paralympics being postponed Niranjan said it would not be fair to go on with games this year as athletes are yet to make themselves qualified for the games as various qualification events are postponed or cancelled due to this pandemic.
“The decision of IOC to postpone the Olympics and Paralympics came to a couple of days back and I kind of take it in a very positive way and support their decision because this is a very unexpected and inevitable phase we are all in. It wouldn’t have made a good impact to go on with the Tokyo as planned this year because a lot of us were yet to qualify and some of were very close to the qualification mark.”
Further, he sheds light on the fact that with the delay of Paralympics and Olympics athletes will get enough time to get trained and somehow who missed sealing their berth for the quadrennial event will get a chance to get qualified for the mega event.
“For my instance, in my last qualifying meet I missed the Tokyo berth by 0.10 microseconds and I was very sure of clicking it in the next competition but a lot of them got canceled and postponed. And like me some athletes were/are just a whisker away from their Olympic dream so I guess it’s a welcoming decision by the IOC and IPC to support it and not once the situation gets better we will have a good amount of time to train and qualify for Olympics/Paralympics 2021,” he added.
Bengaluru born Niranjan made India proud after winning 5 Golds (50m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 100m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke) in Norway swimming championship 2019. This wasn’t enough for the 24-year-old para swimmer as he once again made India proud after getting featured in prestigious Forbes under30 list (Asian Edition) last year.
Earlier, Niranjan won a Bronze medal in men's 50m butterfly at the Berlin World Series 2018, and in the same occurrence, he created an Asian record in the men's 200m backstroke.
The country is in complete lockdown and no one is allowed to step out of their home Coronavirus pandemic, Niranjan is utilising his quarantine days in learning new skills and staying fit. He posted a video on his social media where he can be seen playing the piano.
