After returning to Bengaluru on Tuesday after participating in the French Elite National Swimming Championships in Limoges, France, Olympian swimmer Srihari Nataraja is looking forward to representing host Jain University at the upcoming Khelo India University Games 2021 in Bengaluru.
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He said, “The next few months before the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games will be very exciting for me as I plan to run in different competitions every month and Khelo India University Games is one of them. In the lead up to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. Swimming in a good race without any hiccups will help me analyze where I stand in my preparations.”
“This will be my first appearance at the Khelo India University Games and I am very excited to swim in front of my home audience. I’m doubly excited to swim at the Jain University Global Campus, where I’ve been running since I was eight or nine. I remember that every year we will organize a competition at Jain University Global Campus and I will represent my school Jain Heritage. I have some really good memories of swimming in that pool, especially in my formative years as a swimmer. The campus has a good atmosphere for sports,” said the youngest Indian swimmer to make the Olympic standard time.
Srihari further said that he looks forward to stiff competition from Panjab University, which won the overall championship in the inaugural edition of Khelo India University Games in Odisha, and Anna University, Chennai, which has a good swimming team.
“I will be swimming in some sprint events which include 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle in addition to relay events. I think the race against Aditya Dinesh of Anna University will be very quick, especially in the 50m freestyle event. We both train together and we watch almost the same amount of time (23 seconds). I expect relays to be a game-changer in the swimming discipline in KIUG 2021, with universities sending their top swimmers.”
Although Srihari was not the best at the recent French Elite National Swimming Championships, he believes the meeting in France led to some important conclusions.
He said, “I was running for the first time since the Senior Nationals last October. Although I didn’t swim my best time in the 100m backstroke, I did well in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:03.27 and one in the 50m backstroke. Missed out on a medal by 0.2 fractions of a second. I wasn’t taped for this meeting and could have started taping just before the Commonwealth Games. After KIUG 2021, I’ll be running in Monaco next month,” said Srihari , who was the star performer in Khelo India Youth Games 2018 and 2019. He used this platform to enhance his performance and become a potential medalist. Asian Games 2022 for India.
“I still remember the first Khelo India School Games in 2018, Delhi where I won 6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze. It was my first experience of a multi-disciplinary sporting event and it was very memorable. It’s great that young athletes are getting this kind of exposure, it definitely helped me enhance my performance.”
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