Am confident of putting on good show: Mukundan on his debut Paralympics

Para-swimmer Niranjan Mukundan, who will represent India in the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics, is confident of putting a good show in his debut Games.

The Indian swimmer, who got to know about his participation just four days ago, will compete in the 50 m butterfly event.

"It's every athletes' dream to be a part of Olympics or Paralympics. It has also been my dream and it's a big dream come true. And I have no words," Mukundan told ANI.

"I got the confirmation four days ago. I will be participating in the 50 m butterfly and I am looking forward to it. This is my debut Paralympics and I am pretty sure many more to come.

"I'm confident of putting on a good show. It's a proud moment for me to wear the tricolours. I have worn the tricolours on every big stage except the Paralympics. This being my debut it's a great feeling," he added.

The para-swimmer said the training was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic but he has got into the groove ahead of the Games.

"I'm currently under a high-performance training centre, it has been a great season so far. We had some disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so a few weeks we could not train but now we are in full swing now, I will be racing on September 3," said Mukundan.

"My best timing is 33.1 seconds that I clocked. Finally, I have made it to the Paralympics and I am really happy. I have some good competition from the US, Germany. I have trained with some world champions before, a lot of them know my strengths and weaknesses and I know about theirs."

"From Karnataka, two Paralympians including me have qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics. I am expected to leave somewhere on 25-26, we will go to Delhi, from there it will probably be a send-off to Tokyo," he signed off.