RANCHI: As two of the country's fastest men Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh were going through their stretching rituals on the 100m track at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium, history seemed to be looming in the calm evening horizon. It was more than just premonition. It was on expected lines.
If Gurindervir stopped short of sub 10 sec, one athlete stole the show. Vishal TK. He became the first Indian to run below 45 seconds in one of the most competitive races 400m.
In less than 24 hours after both sprinters broke the national record within minutes, all eyes were on the final of the men’s 100m event on Day 2 of the National Senior Athletics Federation Competition. With Kujur clocking at 10.15s after Singh’s 10.17s run on Friday, there was growing belief that these marks may get shattered on Saturday.
And the belief came to reality. Riding on a brilliant start, Gurindervir continued keeping the pace and built a comfortable gap by 100m standards with Kujur. In the last twenty metres, he paced up, raced to the finish line, and the screen displayed '10.09s,'. There were collective oohs and wows across the stadium. What followed next was an outburst of emotions. Gurindervir’s note behind his bib suggested that he is not going to settle for just this feat. Nor Kujur who finished second with timing of 10.20s.
Someone who has seen the two grow, Reliance foundation’s athletics director and English coach James Hillier felt there is more to come. Last year was where both Kujur and Gurindervir lowered the mark from 10.22 to 10.18. A sub-1o seems a reality.
"Our goal this year was to try and qualify for the Commonwealth Games,” Hillier told The New Indian Express before the men's final. And both of his sprinters have breached the qualification mark (10.16s) for the biennial event in Glasgow. “(For Gurindervir) anything from 10.06 to 10.10 is where I felt he could do, if he executed perfectly. So, he's still got a little bit more execution ahead. We got a little bit more based on how he is now. But also, we expect him to improve this year and next year. I don't know how long it's going to take. But I do expect him to keep improving. And the times are coming down, which is good,” he said after the 100m final.
Helping the athletes to peak at this event was the goal for the coach. “Everything's been leading up to this, so whatever has happened before this is for them to get ready for this competition. Post this, we need to just see what happens in terms of who will be selected to the (CWG) team. We have to go back to the drawing board and plan for that competition,” Hillier explained.
With the National record down by 0.09s, the coach revealed conversations with his wards around the sub-10 second mark, given it comes rarely. “What we actually talk about is nine-nine-eight (9.98s) so I say, ‘what is the profile of a nine-nine eight athlete? What do you need to run in training? So we have done all the markers now, we know what split times they need to run and we have calculated what they need to lift in the gym,” he explained.
“We are now gearing towards that and if they can do that in training it shows me they're capable of nine-nine eight or sub-ten then it's a case of them doing.All we'll do is just keep pushing. It's moving the right way,” he said.
Sub-45 run for Vishal
Quarter-miler Vishal TK improved on his own national record by clocking 44.98 seconds in the men’s 400m final. While he would miss out on the qualification mark by just two-tenths of a second, his run has brought jubilation amongst those close to him. First, his father Thennarasu ran to the finish line and shared a tight hug, before his coach Jason Dawson broke his character, ran to him and hugged his ward. Together both of them shouted, “History! History!,” It was a moment to revel in for Dawson and his ward.