The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) have revealed that the Senior National swimming meet which was slated to be held in Rajkot on March 24, stands cancelled.
"The state units requested that we defer the tournament," said Monal Chokshi, SFI secretary. "(A lof of) The State units are unable to hold trials and swimmers are also out of shape, many of them didn't give qualification timings also in the 4-5 centres who did conduct their state meets. Moreover, train reservations are also difficult for states from the North and far east."
While there was request for to defer the meet, Chokshi said the 2020 championships - the one that was supposed to be held later in the month - has been cancelled. This was not marked to be an Olympic qualification. However, they are working to announce the calendar for the 2021 season.
"The 2021 calendar will be published in the next week. The Senior Nationals for 2021 will be held before June 27, which is a qualification deadline for the Olympics," Chokshi confirmed.
The idea is to get accreditation from the world body to ensure that the swimmers get another chance to meet the Olympic qualification mark considering international travel is becoming an issue.
"Many countries are not allowing outstation swimmers in, so for swimmers, it's hard to go and appear in qualifiers," Chokshi said. He had previously stated that SFI will seek accreditation from the world body for the meet in June to be a Olympic qualifier event.