Fraser-Holmes has a sleep before competing otherwise he finds that he cannot stop his mind from racing and listening to the reggae legend usually does the trick.

"On the way back (to the athletes' village) I was just listening to Bob Marley just to try and put me to sleep because the emotions run high when you are in a good position from the heats," he said.

"For me to swim well I need to block it out for five hours and come back and really invest my emotions when I get to the pool."

Fraser-Holmes set up the night session with a thrilling, somewhat unexpected, win over teammate Cameron McEvoy in the 200 metre freestyle and then was in contention for the 400m individual medley where he surged home on the final lap to pass South Africa's Sebastien Rousseau to claim second behind Scotland's Daniel Wallace.

McEvoy, who dethroned Fraser-Holmes at this year's national titles, looked to be controlling the race through 150m but was reeled in with Fraser-Holmes able to kick away to win in a personal best time of one minute 45.08, the fastest time of the year.

McEvoy touched in 1:45.56, while 400m freestyle silver medallist David McKeon continued his impressive rise, when he finished fourth in 1:46.74. He had voiced some nervousness after the morning heats, from which he had qualified fastest, about the 200m freestyle being his first event of the meet.

Fraser-Holmes, who won the bronze in Delhi, said he and coach Denis Cotterell had been working on a plan for the Commonwealth Games for six months.

"Over the moon right now but it might take a day or two to sink in," Fraser-Holmes said.

"It's really good when a plan comes off."

He said the breakthrough wins had taken longer than expected because he had "a bit of maturing to do physically and mentally".

"I was just patient over last couple of years pretty much waiting my turn and I've just got to capitalise on it on the international stage and know that I'm there and that I'm competitive and leading into Rio hopefully I can do multiple events," he said.

Fraser-Holmes and McEvoy train in different squads on the Gold Coast but are good friends and often go surfing together. Fraser-Holmes said the friendship actually made competing against McEvoy easier.

"It makes it more fun and enjoyable in the marshalling area," he said. "I normally listen to music but I was chatting to Cam and just really relaxed about the whole thing and taking it as it comes."

An hour after winning the 200m freestyle, Fraser-Holmes swam the 400m individual medley and he admitted that the earlier race had drained him.

"My legs were absolutely shot on the last turn but with my training partners we always say 'last one fast one' and I managed to overtake the South African guy and fell into second," he said.