Srihari Nataraj treated himself to a lot of ice cream in the Commonwealth Games Village on Tuesday night. He was done with his three competitive meets in Birmingham, yet not with the swimming. A short training session was slotted in for Wednesday. “I’ll be heading to the pool to watch the races, so thought might as well swim for half hour or so. I have the senior state meet in a few days,” he said.

It hasn’t taken long for the 21-year-old to redraw roadmaps, like it didn’t after his Olympic debut in Tokyo last year. A week’s break later, the Karnataka swimmer had laid out the plan in a way he could peak for the Commonwealth Games. And what he came up with in Birmingham was creditable—two final appearances apart from one rewritten national record.

Srihari Nataraj treated himself to a lot of ice cream in the Commonwealth Games Village on Tuesday night. He was done with his three competitive meets in Birmingham, yet not with the swimming. A short training session was slotted in for Wednesday. “I’ll be heading to the pool to watch the races, so thought might as well swim for half hour or so. I have the senior state meet in a few days,” he said.

It hasn’t taken long for the 21-year-old to redraw roadmaps, like it didn’t after his Olympic debut in Tokyo last year. A week’s break later, the Karnataka swimmer had laid out the plan in a way he could peak for the Commonwealth Games. And what he came up with in Birmingham was creditable—two final appearances apart from one rewritten national record.

Srihari was seventh in the men's 100m backstroke final clocking 54.31 seconds, fifth clocking 25.23 secs in the 50m backstroke final and was in the reserve list for the 200m backstroke final on Tuesday. His timing of 2:00.84 in the heats bettered his own national record set in 2019. It’s the most consistent showing across events by an Indian swimmer at the CWG;

India’s lone medal in the pool at the CWG is from para-swimming.

Srihari is happy with his overall outing—the ice cream indulgence is proof—but rues not matching his personal best in the 100 backstroke of 53.77 (set in June 2021), which would have got him gold (South Africa's Pieter Coetze won in 53.78).

“Not getting that personal best in the 100 was a bit frustrating. 50s are always a hit or miss. I’m glad I broke the national record in 200 for it has been three years since I lowered it,” Srihari said. “I had planned everything for the past one year, to peak here with a medal in mind.”

It included skipping the Worlds Championships in Budapest after training and competing in meets since August last year. “After the Olympics, I took it easy for a week at home but after that, I had trained pretty much non-stop all the way till now.”

The youngster, who secured A qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, has added pace in a steadily rising performance graph in Birmingham. His mindset heading into his second CWG oozed that positivity. “The way I approached the Games and swam making the finals, it’s been a big amount of progress since 2018. The last CWG, I was thinking of it as just another race. This CWG, my plan was to come back with the medal. So, the mindset and approach has definitely changed.”

The last year was challenging for Srihari after he lost his father. But he didn’t stop, instead picking up more pace after the Olympics. He puts it down to unwavering mental resolve. “If I plan something, I stick to it. The minute I get to the pool and the gym, I'm a different person, irrespective of how tired I am. I’ve never had a problem of doing the workouts. Of course, there are days when you just want to back off and not wake up. But I did wake up.”

Like he did on Wednesday for another swim.