Q & A with our Sports Person of the Year award winner Praskash Vijayanath

Published: 3rd May 2016

Trinity Sport recently sat down with this years Sports Person of the Year award winner, Prakash Vijayanath to ask him some questions about his love for the game, his ambition for the future and what's next in his sporting career.

1. What’s it like to play badminton? How did you get interested in the sport?

There a number of reasons why I love playing badminton. I started when I was just 5 years old and my parents introduced me to the sport because they played it as well. At that time I didn’t really care about competition or anything. By the time I was 9 I started playing regional and provincial tournaments and started being more competitive. There has always been a social side to why I play badminton as well. Many of my close friends were made through badminton. I am very close to my national teammates and this makes travelling to tournaments with them enjoyable. The most important factor would simply be that I enjoy winning and performing well. I get a sense of reward when being able to perform well in a tournament after many months of preparation for it.

2. What are you looking to accomplish in your sporting career?

My main goal, ever since I was very young, was to qualify for the Olympics. It has always been a dream of mine and a dream of many other athletes as well. I do have short and medium term goals that I set myself when going into a new season such as winning the National Championships or winning a medal in the continental championships. At the end of the day I just want to be the best badminton player I can be and I am willing to work hard to get there.

3. What is your plan?

My main plan for the next 4 years would be to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Everything I do until then will in some way be towards that goal. For 2016 and 2017 I will mainly focus on training and improving my game. I will be playing less tournaments during this period. This also helps with my College work as I will have more time to focus on graduating in 2017. In 2018 I will start playing more tournaments to boost my world ranking. The qualifying period will be from May 2019 to May 2020. I will have to be either number 1 in Africa or top 60 in the world by then. I aim to meet this criteria before the qualification period starts and then play as many tournaments as possible during the qualifying period to improve my ranking.

4. Have you had to overcome any major challenges?

Injuries can have a very big influence on tournament and season plans. Some injuries can happen just from bad luck and there is nothing I can do about that. Going to the physio once or twice a week will definitely help avoid injuries. Also focussing on strength and conditioning as well as rehab work is vital to avoid injuries. It's all about controlling what you can.

5. Is it hard to balance your role as a college student with your role as an athlete? Describe what a typical day is like for you.

The first 2 years of College I found it quite difficult to balance college work, training, tournaments as well as social life. Skipping lectures for training occurred quite frequently and this would put a lot of pressure during the exam period. I slowly learned to balance college and badminton by the time I arrived in 3rd year. Luckily my timetable suited my training schedule really well and I spent more time training in the gym at Trinity too. I found it was best to make a plan each week that accounts for as much as possible during your day, even meal preparation time and travelling time etc. It’s impossible to stick to this plan 100% as things will always pop up but it did make my life a whole lot easier. My typical day would consist of 1 badminton session and 1 gym session or running session. The gym or running would be done in the afternoon (based on when I was free from College). The badminton session would be done mostly during the morning but if I have an important lecture during that time I would be able to train in the evening instead.