Sandeep Sejwal
must be looking forward to his planned break after the
National Aquatics Championship
in Ranchi, where his winning run as the national breaststroke champion extended to a decade.
Certain to miss the
Asian Championships
, Sejwal proved to be a stiff challenge and completed a hat-trick of wins in the 50m (28.69), 100m (1:02.12) and 200m (2:15.28) men's breaststroke.
The nationals serve as selections grounds for the Asian Championships.
Elated at the extraordinary feat, the swimmer's coach
Nihar Ameen
termed himself "fortunate" to have worked with Sejwal.
"Congratulations, Sandeep! You are a great athlete and no coach could ever be as fortunate as I to train a swimmer of your caliber. Cheers!" he wrote on his Facebook page.
"The 70th Senior National Championships at Ranchi this year makes it straight 10 years as national champion in the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke. That's an unparalleled feat," he added.
Having missed the Olympics qualification in 2012 and 2016, Sejwal, who has ruled Indian pools over the past 10 years, is even doubtful about continuing until the
2018 Asian Games and wants to look at how things pan out at the end of his break.
Having said that, it won't be a surprise if the 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist strongly mulls quitting the pool. But at 27, age is on his side to continue at least until the Asiad, if not Tokyo 2020.
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