UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 6 of 150

Correct — A, Sajan Prakash. At the Danish Open held in Copenhagen from 15 to 19 April 2022, Sajan Prakash won the gold medal in the men's 200 metres butterfly on 15 April 2022, clocking 1:59.27. It was his first international meet of that season, and it came less than two months before the 12 June 2022 exam, which is why the paper could ask it as current affairs. Sajan Prakash is the natural answer on background as well as on the result sheet: the 200 metres butterfly is his event, and in June 2021 at Rome he became the first Indian swimmer ever to breach a FINA Olympic 'A' qualification time, in 1:56.38 — a national record — and the first Indian swimmer to qualify for two consecutive Olympic Games, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. At the same Danish Open meet, Vedaant Madhavan took silver in the 1500 metres freestyle. All of this is anchored to April 2022 as the exam asked it; later results in Indian swimming are not claimed here.

• (b)Sakshi Balkrishnan — This is a woman's given name, and the question asks specifically for the winner of the men's 200 metres butterfly — so the option can be struck out on the face of the stem, whoever it is meant to refer to. The Copenhagen gold in that event went to Sajan Prakash.
• (c)Sandeep Sejwal — Sandeep Sejwal is a genuine Indian international swimmer, but he is a breaststroke specialist, not a butterfly swimmer, so he is not a candidate for the 200 metres butterfly title. The paper is testing whether you attach the right stroke to the right name.
• (d)Sri Hari Natraj — Srihari Nataraj is one of India's leading swimmers and, like Sajan Prakash, an Olympic 'A' qualifier — but his events are the backstroke. He is the sharpest distractor precisely because the two names travel together in reports of Indian swimming's Olympic qualification, and a candidate who remembers only 'the Indian swimmer in the news' can pick the wrong one.

Competitive swimming is contested over four strokes — freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly — and swimmers specialise, so a name in Indian swimming is usually attached to one stroke. Sajan Prakash is India's butterfly swimmer, Srihari Nataraj its backstroke swimmer and Sandeep Sejwal a breaststroke swimmer. The qualification standards that matter for the Olympic Games are set by the world governing body for aquatics: the 'A' cut earns direct qualification, while the slower 'B' cut only makes a swimmer eligible for a universality place. No Indian had ever swum an 'A' cut until Sajan Prakash did so in the 200 metres butterfly at Rome in June 2021.

Current-affairs sports questions of this kind are best handled by pairing each name with a stroke or discipline rather than by trying to recall individual meets. Once you know that only one of the four names is a butterfly swimmer, the event named in the stem does the work for you. Two further filters help here: the question says 'men's', which removes a woman's name outright, and it names an international meet in April 2022, which points to a swimmer who was in the news around then. Remember also to read such questions as fixed to the exam date — the claim is about the Danish Open of April 2022 and nothing later.

• Sajan Prakash won gold in the men's 200 metres butterfly at the Danish Open in Copenhagen on 15 April 2022, in a time of 1:59.27; the meet ran from 15 to 19 April 2022.
• In June 2021 at Rome, Sajan Prakash became the first Indian swimmer to achieve a FINA Olympic 'A' qualification time, swimming the 200 metres butterfly in 1:56.38 — a national record.
• He is also the first Indian swimmer to qualify for two consecutive Olympic Games — Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
• At the same Danish Open in April 2022, Vedaant Madhavan won silver in the 1500 metres freestyle.
• The distractor names belong to real Indian swimmers in other strokes — Srihari Nataraj in backstroke, also an Olympic 'A' qualifier, and Sandeep Sejwal in breaststroke.

• Picking the Indian swimmer you have heard of most recently rather than the one who swims that stroke — Srihari Nataraj is a backstroke swimmer, not a butterfly swimmer.
• Ignoring the gender of the event named in the stem; a men's event cannot have been won by a woman.
• Reading a dated current-affairs question in the present tense. The claim here is about April 2022, not about the current holder of any title.

UPPSC asks sports current affairs as single-name recall pinned to a meet and a month, or as a match-the-athlete-to-the-medal list; UPSC prelims almost never asks sports results, so treat this as a State-PCS-specific area to revise from the exam year's news.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who became the first Indian swimmer to achieve a FINA Olympic 'A' qualification standard, doing so in the men's 200 metres butterfly at Rome in June 2021?

  • (a)Srihari Nataraj
  • (b)Sajan Prakash
  • (c)Virdhawal Khade
  • (d)Sandeep Sejwal

  Answer(b) Sajan Prakash — he swam 1:56.38, a national record, and also became the first Indian swimmer to qualify for two consecutive Olympics.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Danish Open swimming meet at which India won medals in April 2022 was held in which city?

  • (a)Aarhus
  • (b)Odense
  • (c)Copenhagen
  • (d)Helsinki

  Answer(c) Copenhagen — the Danish Open ran there from 15 to 19 April 2022, with Sajan Prakash taking gold in the 200 metres butterfly.