SHORT DESCRIPTION:
Khajan Singh Tokas is an Indian sports personality born on 6th May 1964 in Munirka, a village near South West Delhi. He is an expert swimmer in freestyle and butterfly strokes. Khajan Singh currently works with CRPF as Deputy Inspector General. Khajan Singh Tokas recalls the challenges in his days as a leading swimmer in the country.
Khajan Singh Tokas is an Indian sports personality born on 6th May 1964 in Munirka, a village near South West Delhi. He is an expert swimmer in freestyle and butterfly strokes. Khajan Singh currently works with CRPF as Deputy Inspector General. Khajan Singh Tokas recalls the challenges in his days as a leading swimmer in the country.
“In my time, the only competitions I had were the senior national championships and my departmental competitions. When compatriots Wilson Cherian, Bula Choudhury and I went to the Asian Games in 1986, we went to Australia to train with ace coach Eric Arnold in New South Wales for about nine months”, Tokas said.
Khajan Singh also mentions that they were apprehensive about the swimmers there. He said, “once we started training and participated in tournaments organised there, we started getting the confidence. Then, on returning to India, we were without a foreign coach and were training on our own. The three months were spoilt by this. Thereafter, the Australian coach agreed to come to India for three months and hence we got to train under him before the Asian Games”.
The CRPF D.I.G also acknowledges that the improvement was so good that he dropped his time from 2:14s to 2:03s or 2:02s in 200m butterfly. Though the foreign coach was not allowed to go to the Asian Games because no foreign coach was allowed to go under the Indian flag that time, Khajan Singh gained in confidence that he managed 2:02.38s for silver in the Asian Games. “I was so happy that my time dropped by 10 seconds in one year, and it was not easy. That changed my life”, Khajan Singh said.
Tokas said that though he managed to qualify for the 1988 Olympics with a timing of 1:59s, he could not manage a medal. He admitted it was tough to win a medal as a 26-year-old then. Khajan Singh Tokas CRPF said, “It was very difficult to train alone in India. Now you have good coaches, good facilities. I knew medal at the Olympics was not possible because the government asked me to peak before the Games and qualify for the last six places. I had to peak at the right time to win an Olympic medal. You cannot peak whenever you like”.
Khajan Singh Tokas also acknowledges that, “I came to the peak just a month before and qualified for the 1988 Olympics. But the same timing was not possible in the Games. If I did the same time, I would have been a finalist in Olympics. The target those days was that since I got an Asian Games medal, I had to go to the Olympics. The situation was such that they wanted my best in qualifying and not at the Olympics”. Khajan Singh Tokas clocked 2:03.95s in the heats to finish 28th in 200m butterfly at the Seoul Games.
Comments