CHENNAI: "It felt weird at first," Srihari Nataraj says. "I did take time to get reacquainted to the water, I'm still in that process. The ankles and the palms just did not get that feel for the swimming pool. It's better now, thankfully."
After more than five months out of the pool, the 19-year-old jumped at the chance to be a part of the one-off 60-day camp for elite Indian swimmers in Dubai. After taking to the water in the first week of September following a mandatory quarantine period, these were Nataraj's first thoughts.
"It's just been 10 days, so there is no way that I will be doing intense training sessions for sometime," he says. "For the time being, the focus should be more on not getting injured, increasing the load slowly and concentrating on conditioning."
It's something the backstroke specialist can do because there is no pressure to rush through to get ready for tournaments. He already has an Olympic 'B' qualification mark so he can take it slowly.
The more important thing, like he says, is there is no point in going to competitions now, anyway. "I only have 10 days of training under my belt," he says.
In fact, his coach, Pradeep Kumar, and he haven't really set a timetable to return to competitive racing yet. "I only came here 10 days ago, too early to say anything right now."
Khade yet to join
Kushagra Rawat and Srihari Nataraj are also part of the camp in Dubai but one swimmer who is yet to join is Virdhawal Khade.
Khade's name was in the original list mentioned by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) but the Mumbai-based athlete is still in India. It's not yet known if or when Khade, one of India's very Olympians in the sport, will join the others.