Swimmer Srihari Nataraj qualifies for Tokyo Olympics after anxious wait for timing to be ratified

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The last couple of days proved to be an anxious time for Srihari Nataraj. The Indian swimmer, after recording the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) in a requested time trial in the 100m backstroke at the Setti Colli Trophy in Rome on Sunday, was made to wait. His timing as a direct entry for the Tokyo Olympics had to be ratified by the world swimming body, FINA.

He managed to distract himself with ”some sightseeing in Rome”. The backstroke specialist visited famous places like the Colosseum, St. Peter’s Square, Trevi Fountain among others. However, even when he left Rome for Bengaluru, the anxious feeling was still present and he finally took a huge sigh of relief after learning about his official Olympic berth confirmation on landing at the city airport. After reaching home, he was greeted with home made ladoos too.

“It came as a relief when I came to know about FINA accepting the timing. I got a confirmation call from Nihar (Ameen) sir and Monal (Chokshi, Swimming Federation of India secretary) sir,” said Srihari. “Glad it happened, a little later than expected but in the end got it done.”

With this confirmation, he will join Sajan Prakash as the second direct entrant to the Tokyo Olympics. The entry of the Kerala swimmer, who achieved the OQT feat in the same meet in Rome, also acted as motivation and Srihari delivered the goods during the time trial with a timing of 53.77 seconds.

In fact, he had come agonisingly close in the main race, missing the A mark (53.85s) by 0.05s and the only option left was a time trial. It was always going to be a challenge considering he was the lone swimmer in the pool and primarily raced against the clock. But, the swimmer made some fine strategic changes, which worked for him.

“The strategy going into the trials was a bit different from the main race,” Srihari said. “I knew exactly what to focus on. In the first race I was trying to open under 26s. I knew going into the second race that my comeback speed was more than my opening speed. I tried to use that momentum of the wall, nail that turn and also make sure that in the last 15 metres or so I don’t drop.”

What made this feat even more remarkable was the difficult phase for swimmers during Covid-19. Especially last year, swimmers in India were off the pool for almost half of the year, and it did get difficult. Even when pools gradually opened, the second wave of the pandemic did not help their cause either. However, Srihari, who is looking to make it to the semifinals in Tokyo, defied all odds in what was his last chance to qualify for the Olympics directly via the time trial. It was also the last day of the qualification period.

“Not being able to swim for a long time did affect us. I was talking to other swimmers and everyone was shocked that we were not swimming for half a year or so. That does make a difference too, but it was not in our control. For sure it would have made a difference if we had been in the water earlier,” said Srihari.