New Delhi: Sajan Prakash and Shivani Katariya have been selected as the country's wild-card entries for the Rio Olympics next month, after none of the swimmers managed to make the 'A' cut that is required for direct qualification.
Five swimmers - Prakash, Sandeep Sejwal, Virdhawal Khade, Supriyo Mondal and Saurabh Sangvekar - appeared in Division 1 Age Group Long Course Competition, the last qualifying event, in Hong Kong on July 2-3 but failed to clock the timing required for the 'A' cut.
As a result, India used its two wild cards (one each for the men's and women's draw) to name Prakash and Shivani, which was confirmed to News18 by the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) president, Digambar Kamat.
The wild card in this case is formally termed as the Universality quota.
Interestingly, the SFI chose Prakash ahead of Sejwal, who has the maximum FINA points among the five men in the fray. But a FINA scholarship for both Prakash and Shivani probably loaded the scales in their favour.
Also, Prakash made the 'B' cut in three events (400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle and 200m butterfly), which is probably why the SFI considered him to be in better form and ignored Sejwal's (100m and 200m breaststroke) FINA points.
Prakash – with 798 points – stands second to Sejwal's FINA tally of 822 points.
While Shivani will compete in the 200m freestyle women's event in Rio, Prakash will be in the pool for 200m butterfly.
