After a bittersweet start to his maiden Commonwealth Games campaign, Ben Treffers says he's primed for the "splash and dash" of the 50 metres backstroke.
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The 22-year-old Canberran was equal second fastest in the heats on Saturday night behind Englishman Chris Walker-Hebborn who won gold in the 100 metres backstroke on Friday night.
He swam in the semi-final early Sunday morning with the final to take place early on Monday.
Treffers only narrowly scraped into the 100 metres final, managing fifth behind Walker-Hebborn.
Now Treffers is out to convert the 50 metres national record he set earlier this year into a podium finish in Glasgow.
"For me a fifty's just fun, splash and dash, I've got a lot of confidence in my fifty from breaking the Australian record," Treffers said.
"I feel pretty comfortable in a fifty, I've been doing a lot of speed work this preparation."
Treffers has maintained his confidence despite a 100 metres backstroke campaign that simply didn't go to plan.
He'd battled a cold in the weeks leading up to Glasgow, and his semi-final swim on Thursday was well over a second outside what he's capable of.
But in a strange quirk of fate, the experience looks to have set him up perfectly for the novelty event of the 50 metres.
Following the disappointing semi-final swim, Treffers and his coach John Fowlie decided to throw the usual game plan out the window and put everything into the first lap of the 100 metres decider.
The ANU commerce student turned 0.05sec in front of Walker-Hebborn producing the quickest 50-metre split of the race, and shaving more than a second off his semi-final effort.
"To not be feeling well after that heat and semi yesterday, to come out and swim heaps better today I couldn't be happier," Treffers said after the race.
"My coach John Fowlie said it's not happening, so may as well just give it a crack. I just really wanted to see how fast I could get out and hold on. I thought I executed pretty well."
Walker-Hebborn isn't the only Englishman standing between Treffers and gold.
Fifty-metre world record holder Liam Tancock, who finished in a dead-heat for bronze on Friday with Australian Josh Beaver, was fifth fastest in the heats.
Tancock set the record more than five years ago and has battled a hip injury all year, but looks to be returning to form.
"He had a bit of time out of the water, obviously he's back swimming well," Treffers said.
"I just can't look at the other competitors. To be honest, if I can lower that Australian record, that'd be great, whatever place that gets me that's good."
Meanwhile, Cooma swimmer Joshua Alford swam for gold in the para-sport 200 metres freestyle S14 early on Sunday morning after finishing fifth in his heat with a time of 2:03.99. Australian teammate Daniel Fox won the heat, breaking the world record in the process.
