The Waterboy

It was a day to remember for Indian swimming as 25-year-old Sandeep Sejwal won an unexpected medal in the 50 metres breaststroke with a timing of 28.26 seconds on Friday.

A bronze in swimming is as good as a gold medal in any other discipline. That's how stupendous Sejwal's achievement is.

The Delhi boy had topped his heats by clocking 28.25 seconds.

The gold was bagged by Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Balandin, who bettered the Games record of 27.80 seconds with a timing of 27.78 seconds. And Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki clocked 27.89 seconds to grab the silver.

It all started at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou when Virdhawal Khade ended India's 24-year medal drought in the 50 metres butterfly event by winning the bronze medal. Before Khade, Khajan Singh had won silver in the 200 metres butterfly event at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

Interestingly, Sejwal was leading till the 40-metre mark. A slight hiccup cost him that vital fraction of a second and the gold.

"These things keep happening during competitions. My timing was a little slow. My best time is 27.83 seconds and it would have been gold here had I managed to match that," Sejwal said.

Sejwal is the senior national champion and Indian national record-holder in the 50, 100 and 200 metres breaststroke events. He won the silver medal at the Asian Indoor Games in 2007.

Sejwal took a decision to move to Bangalore some eight years back in order to train under coach Nihar Ameen.

"I only managed to speak to my mother for a few seconds after winning the medal. She was so thrilled and the celebrations have already started in New Delhi," Sejwal told dna.

"Before the race, the last eight years of my life flashed in front of me. I knew I have really worked hard to get here. And if I don't win a medal, then it would all go waste. Now I have reason to work even harder in order to qualify for the Rio Olympics."

Sejwal was inspired by Khade. "It was my dream. And ever since Khade won in Guangzhou, I wanted to take this forward."

He thanked his coach for making him realise his dream. However, Ameen rued the lack of exposure before the Games and requested the Indian government to make swimming a priority sport. "There was no foreign exposure. Swimming is not on the government's priority list.. There is hardly any help. And one fine example of this is that there is just one Olympic-style starting block in the whole country. And that's in Talkatora, New Delhi.

How can we match the world's best swimmers without any support and equipment?" asked Ameen.

"Technologically, we have got to be at par with the Chinese and Japanese. Look at all the top teams: their physios fine-tune the swimmers before the start of event. And we've just one masseur, who is at the Games Village.

Without the support of corporates or the government, we cannot take the sport to the next level," he added.

Hopefully, Sejwal's success will bring about change.

DID YOU KNOW?
Sejwal's bronze is only the fourth medal for India in swimming. Sachin Nag had won gold in the men's 100m freestyle in the inaugural Asian Games in Delhi (1951), Khazan Singh silver in the 200m butterfly in 1986 at Seoul and Virdhawal Khade bronze four years ago at Guangzhou in the 100m butterfly