RANCHI: The new national record in the men’s 100m set by sprinter Gurindervir Singh at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium only lived for a grand total of five minutes. All thanks to Animesh Kujur’s blazing run. Competing at heat 2 in the men’s 100m semifinals on Day 1 of the National Senior Athletics Federation competition on Friday, Kujur clocked 10.15s, to breach the qualification mark for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this year.
Gurindervir’s run, coming at heat 1, was as quick as Animesh’s but only for the 80 metres. In the last twenty metres, he pulled the brakes, which as his photo finish saw him lean back. “10.17s,” was what read against his name. “I wanted to get into the final,” he was heard saying.
While a national record is a moment of celebration, Gurindervir could not have been happier for what followed, as his ‘friend’ Kujur bettered his mark. After the 22-year-old finished first in his heat. he stood beside Kujur and when the timings showed up on the screen, they shared a long embrace, before latter walked back to the track to pose for photographs.
With weather conditions pleasant than in the morning, the track also was fast enough to help athletes run to their full potential.
Reliance Foundation's athletics director and coach of both Gurindervir and Kujur, James Hillier, explained more on this run. “Gurindervir is in amazing shape while training. He's actually been running 10.0s in training or equivalent based on my modelling. But he was very relaxed as he eased down the photo finish. We know that had he run through the line it would have been significantly quicker but it wasn't about breaking records, it was about qualifying and practising stuff that he needs for tomorrow for the final so I expect him to come back super strong for the final,” Hillier said.
“Then you've got Animesh who's the most unbelievable competitor. So he's seen that record get broken and was like, ‘I'm not having any of that’ and and goes and drops one so it's great to see and that was what I was talking about a couple years ago would happen they start breaking each other's records and you know the 10.1s would come and so it's very exciting it's all sort of starting to come together now for these guys,” he said.
In the larger context, runs from the duo have lowered the gap between the athletes and a sub-10 second run. Last year, both Kujur and Gurindervir held national records in this sprint event, with the latter holding it for a longer period of time. It began in March 2025 during the Indian Grand Prix - 1 in Bengaluru when Karnataka’s Manikanta Hoblidhar ran at a record breaking 10.22 seconds, only to be bettered by Gurindervir (10.20s) in no time.
Later that same year, Kujur timed 10.18 seconds in an invitational event at Vari, Greece.
With the English coach not hiding his excitement for Saturday’s blockbuster men’s 100m final, expect those in the arena to have their eyes locked into this.
