On a gleaming afternoon in his one bedroom apartment at Mumbai, Siddhanth Thingalaya frantically looks at all the forms for his Visa and shooting emails to the Athletics Federation of India, just in case he is accepted for the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia. More often than not, he ends up going through the same process of frantic and helter-skelter before any major event outdoors. 'My parents support me because of my passion for the sport. All their savings have gone into my training and that isn't right because they don't enjoy their life. He recalls during a summer camp, 'I turned up for running with slippers and football shorts whereas all other students already were in proper gear. But I was never worried about that because I knew I had the speed to outpace them' And he did. This early realization of his talent by him and his parents is what kick-started his sprinting career. Siddhanth isn't an archetypical guy. He stands 6'3 tall and well built. He is a disciplined Mama's boy yet vivacious at times. By 2010 Siddhanth was still juggling between studies and sports, realized that doing something in sports would be more of an achievement than just having passed out with academics. He did a training stint in Australia under Mittal Champions Trust and had participated at South Africa under the Mittal Champions Trust and clocked 14.31 seconds at the high altitude Potchefstroom in March 2010. A few months later, he went on to win the silver medal in the Asian Junior Meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, clocking a personal best 13.96 seconds (99.0 cm hurdles), while setting a new Indian Junior record. He competed for India in the 2010 World Junior Championships, missing qualifying for the semi-finals by .03 in his heat running 14.09. 'Breaking the junior national record by clocking 13.89 then gave me a sign that I need to work on becoming a professional. Now I had to learn to be a better hurdler. I used to read books and research over videos and try to pick something up. I still do that' 'Gary is more of a friend than a coach to me' Initially, Gary was skeptical about working with Siddhanth but after watching a few videos of Siddhanth he opted to coach him. 'I remember the first time I met Gary, he told me not to run fast. I was stunned. He told me to work on the basics first and then get on with improving my technique' Siddhanth stresses on the difference that Gary has had in his life -Personally and Professionally. 'Gary is more of a friend than a coach to me' he says, 'We talk, we fight and we question each other's opinions during training, but it's never personal. We understand each other on a mental level. Our only objective is to get better'. During the 2015 season whilst Gary was working on improving Siddhanth's technique, his timings weren't improving. He recalls, '2015 was the worst year of my career. My timings were not great. I had a couple of injuries and Gary and I were still working on getting my technique right'. But in every athlete's career, there comes a time when everything just starts to click. All the hours at the training ground actually find space on the field. This for Siddhanth Thingalaya happened in 2016 season when he participated in the Canyon State Games in Arizona where he clocked a personal best of 13.59, besting it at another track event in Florida with a time of 13.54. 'I could see the technique working in my favor. My reaction time improved. Overall by now (2016 season) I had a really good rhythm about my running. It took a year for the techniques and training to bear fruit, but it did eventually,' he says. "If I am on a track then I need to be the lion on that track." Siddhanth digresses on the issues he has faced while participating at various events and pinpoints to traveling and recovery as the main villains for not performing at an optimum level for events. In the recently concluded IAAF World Indoor Championships held at Birmingham, Siddhanth received his traveling documents and visas at the 11th hour, only to arrive in England vehemently late and ran the track without any proper practice or getting acclimatized to the conditions there. He continues, 'Travelling is not a major problem. It is the recovery after it that causes all the problems. Recovering from a long flight to run the next day at full power is difficult for anyone. If there is a schedule maintained then I would get time to rest, train and get acclimatized before the actual event' 'This is where I feel Khelo India will serve a great purpose'. Khelo India is a National Development Programme of sports which, Siddhanth mentions this as a very good initiative. Khelo India will create a great platform for the youth and upcoming athletes'. Just like the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA in the US, Khelo India, in collaboration with Schools and Colleges should also serve a great opportunity for the federation to create a learning path and more importantly, create opportunities for various athletes and junior sportsmen to have a career out of it. 'Through Khelo India, we will have great athletes and sportsmen coming out in the next few years' He also hopes for fellow athletes with the likes Tejaswin Shankar and Neeraj Chopra to improve further and compete at the highest level. Also read: Hit or miss: Re-evaluating the success of Khelo India School Games 'If I want more athletes from India competing at world level then I need to be that guy that people look up to.' We were midway stopped during our interview with his Mom for Chai and Shira (Indian sweet dish). His Mom is a soft-spoken lady, very humble but passionate about having a healthy life. She makes it a point to go to the gym every day. Whilst talking about Thingalaya's achievement, there is an air of obviousness of how proud she is of him. 'I remember taking him to practice when he was small and there were other kids with gears and proper shoes and we could only afford so much. We made it a point to buy him at least shoes so that he doesn't get hurt while running. I still have his first kit from one of the junior events,' she says with a big grin on her face, 'I'm nostalgic that way' Siddhanth's father, on the other hand, was less talkative. He would only acknowledge to some of the facts that were spoken. There was, however, a sense of gratitude from him toward his son. A thanking in his silence for the people that are talking and writing about his son's achievements.