NEW DELHI: For Tejas Nandakumar, India’s national record holder in the Men’s S7 100m backstroke, the past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of disbelief.The 20-year-old from Bengaluru was supposed to compete at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, starting July 23, and everything had been building towards that moment. The training, the qualifying times, the visa paperwork, even the measurements for his ceremonial kit, had all been completed. When the official list of participants was released on Friday, his name was on it. Twenty-four hours later, everything came apart. Tejas had fully qualified for the Men’s 50m Freestyle S7, and his slot had already been accepted. But during final validation, he was ruled ineligible, not for anything to do with his swimming, but because of his classification status.His current designation, Review-2025, didn’t meet the requirement of a confirmed status or a locked review date of 2027 or later.“I’m absolutely devastated. It has absolutely nothing to do with my swimming, my fitness, or my performance,” he told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interaction. “It was strictly a technicality that ran out of time.”Classification determines how athletes are grouped according to the nature and extent of their impairment, ensuring fair competition in para sport.A “Review 2025” meant the international classifiers had determined that his sport class could change and would need to be reassessed before or during 2025. By contrast, a “Confirmed” classification indicates the athlete’s sport class is considered stable and is not expected to change.Under Commonwealth Games eligibility rules, athletes must either hold a confirmed classification or have a review date set for 2027 or later to ensure stability. Because Tejas’s review was scheduled for 2025, he was deemed ineligible despite qualifying on merit.
Could this situation have been avoided?“Maybe. But the administrative scheduling and paperwork required to lock that status in simply didn’t happen in time,” he added.The rejection was especially painful because he had spent the past 18 months chasing classification opportunities across three countries. He competed in Barcelona, Paris and Australia, even funding one trip himself, in a bid to secure the status required for Glasgow.One of those attempts came entirely at his own expense. Tejas says he personally funded his trip to Paris, hoping it would help secure the classification needed to remain eligible for Glasgow. But he never got the classification window he needed to have his status reassessed. When he sensed trouble looming for the Commonwealth Games, he tried again, submitting entry fees in March 2026 for a meet in Fuji-Shizuoka, Japan. That attempt also fell through, as he never secured a slot and eventually withdrew.“Honestly, to say I am absolutely gutted is an understatement,” he admitted. “You pour your life into representing your country, and to have a realistic shot at a medal taken away on a technicality without even getting to dive into the pool is a heavy pill to swallow.”He believes India’s sporting bodies, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) among them, have both the capacity and the opportunity to close this gap before it costs another athlete a shot at a podium, especially with the Asian Para Games and the Paralympics on the horizon.“PCI was actually in my corner and tried to support,” he told this website. “From what I understand of the process, it really came down to a matter of administrative priority; if it had been pushed more proactively on the para swimming federation’s end, that classification window likely could have been secured. I don’t want to point fingers directly or make it controversial, but that’s essentially where the structural bottleneck was.“
‘It is very difficult to get the classification slot’: PCI
When asked if the governing body tried to intervene, Virender Kumar Dabas, Chairman of Para-Swimming for the Paralympic Committee of India, told TimesofIndia.com: “No, pushing things doesn’t work here. He should have classified himself. He was to be reclassified in 2025. He should have been more careful, and he was reminded time and again.”While acknowledging that Tejas travelled to events in Paris and Australia only to miss out due to massive backlogs, Dabas noted,
“Allotment of a classification slot is the prerogative of World Para Swimming. Especially in Europe, it is very difficult to get the classification slot… because there is so much of rush, there is so much of waiting. He went to Paris, he did not get the classification slot. Very unfortunate.”Dabas stressed that the PCI has no say in Commonwealth Games selections and dismissed the possibility of last-minute political interventions.“We do not select the athletes. The selection comes from the top, from the international body. If there had been some other document problem, that could have been ratified, rectified,” he added.Dabas concluded that the outcome was a definitive, albeit unfortunate, reality that the athlete was warned about.“He is a good kid, but he has been unfortunate. What to do? We had told him earlier that though his name has come from World Para Swimming through IOA, the chances are less,” he further remarked. “He was informed about this. Because when they checked one by one, they found that he is not eligible to participate in 2026.”
‘I am keeping my head high’: Tejas Nandakumar
To prevent similar situations in the future, Nandakumar has called for a dedicated classification fund separate from standard “Foreign Exposure” competition budgets, since current policy typically only covers one international meet a year, alongside a system that identifies and prioritises medal-contending athletes for classification opportunities well in advance, along with a two-to-three-year planning cycle that reflects the time swimmers spend preparing for major competitions.“They absolutely should have prioritised top swimmers first,” Nandakumar stated. “I just hope it brings immediate attention to these administrative timelines so we can protect someone else from ending up in situations like this.”For now, Tejas insists this setback will not define him. “I am keeping my head high. I am not letting this define me,” he concluded. “My focus shifts immediately, and my eyes are completely locked onto preparing and delivering for India at the upcoming Asian Para Games.”
