Assam swimmer Tirthank Pegu is preparing for the Youth Olympics in Dakar after training with Sajan Prakash in Europe. Pegu said, “He taught me that swimming is not only about training in the water.” After his March performance in Singapore, he now feels confident to chase his big goals.
Tirthank Pegu
KOLKATA: As Tirthank Pegu prepares for the biggest competition of his young career, his biggest takeaway from the last few months has little to do with lap times or race strategies. The Assam swimmer, who will represent India in the 100m and 200m butterfly at Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal, spent six weeks training in Europe, including a stint alongside India’s most accomplished butterfly swimmer, Sajan Prakash. While the sessions in Spain and Scotland helped sharpen his technique, Pegu says the lessons he learnt outside the pool could prove just as valuable. “My target was to go sub-two minutes in the 200m butterfly because Sajan Prakash is the only Indian swimmer who has achieved that. Training with him taught me a lot, not only about the event itself but also about life beyond swimming,” Pegu told STOI. Fresh from a personal-best performance at Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships in March, where he clocked 2:00.96 in the 200m butterfly to grab bronze after improving from his previous best of 2:02.56, Pegu travelled to Spain for a three-week high-altitude camp before heading directly to Scotland for another three weeks of preparation. The Singapore meet, however, proved to be a turning point. “It gave me a huge mental boost. Dropping two seconds in an event like the 200m butterfly made me more confident in myself and in my coach’s training,” said the 18-year-old. That confidence only grew during his European camps, where he had the opportunity to observe first-hand how elite swimmers approach their craft. According to Pegu, one of the most important lessons from Prakash was understanding that success in swimming is built away from the pool as much as inside it. “He taught me that swimming is not only about training in the water. It’s about your lifestyle, the habits you maintain and the discipline you follow every day. The way you live your life shows up in the pool,” said Pegu during a virtual interaction from Dakar on Saturday. The youngster believes those conversations helped strengthen him mentally as he chases one of the biggest goals of his career. While qualifying for the Youth Olympics fulfilled a dream he shared with his father, Pegu has also developed a larger purpose. “When I was training in Delhi, there were times when I felt negative. A lot of people still don’t believe that Indian swimmers can achieve great results at major international events like the Asian Games or the Commonwealth Games,” said Pegu, who currently trains at Inspire Institute of Sport in Vijayanagar, Karnataka.
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The 18-year-old hopes strong performances by Indian swimmers on the global stage can change those perceptions. “My goal is to help Indian swimming reach a level where people take us seriously and support us more,” he added. For now, however, his complete focus remains on the Youth Olympics, and the 100m and 200m butterfly events he will compete in. Armed with confidence from a breakthrough year, six weeks of training in Europe and lessons learned from veteran Prakash, Pegu hopes to turn those experiences into a medal-winning performance on the biggest stage of his junior career.