Five days before the start of the National Games swimming competition in the Sardar Patel Swimming Complex in Rajkot, India’s best swimmer Srihari Nataraj insists that competing in the National Games already feels different since it will be a bigger and better experience, even though the same set of swimmers who compete regularly at the national level will be vying for honours.
“The National Games is a whole new meet to me,” said Srihari Natraj, who will be competing in his first-ever National Games.
“I am glad Gujarat stepped in to host the National Games after seven years. It has been a long wait for all of us,” said Srihari Natraj, who finished fifth and seventh in the 50-meter and 100-meter backstroke events in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham recently.
Srihari Natraj, however, doesn’t have happy memories of Rajkot, where he last competed 10 years ago, but is confident that things are different this time around. “I do not remember much from the National Sub-Junior Championships in 2012. But it was the only national championship in my life that I did not medal in. That’s not going to be the case this time, for sure. It will seem like a new city for me.”
Though Srihari Natraj did not participate in the 2015 National Games, he remembers Sajan Prakash dominating the pool with six gold medals then. He has also read about the time when Virdhawal Khade won eight golds, including in the 50m and 100m backstroke events, at the 2011 Ranchi National Games.
Srihari Natraj is also aware that the Best Athlete of the National Games has almost always emerged from the swimming pool. Though, he is not conceding a walk-over to Sajan Prakash, the 21-year-old thinks the senior swimmer may edge him out in the race.