Inter-State Athletics Championships | From uncertain future to winning gold, Gurindervir Singh comes a full circle

Gurindervir Singh proves doubters wrong with a 10.32s sprint, emerging as India's fastest man at Inter-State Athletics Championships.

Gurindervir Singh had a point to prove. He did it in style to emerge as the fastest man on Indian tracks with a 10.32-second sprint to win the 100m on Day Two of the 63rd Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Friday, then let out a loud roar, egged on by a crowd of vocal supporters.

“There were quite a few who had said I was finished in the last two years, that I will not even go below 10.50 seconds, that there was nothing left in me. The celebration was not for the rest of the runners but those doubters,” Gurindervir admitted after the race.

The other runners in the field included the other two fastest men in the country at the moment – Animesh Kujur and Amlan Borgohain – and the duo duly completed the top-three in the event.

But while they were sporting enough, it was Gurindervir who was the most desperate to win.

“I have been training on my own for a while now in Jalandhar. I have my coach Sarabjit Singh Happy but no training partners. A competition like this is good because it pushes you to do better but getting such competitors in training is even more important. That is what actually helps get better and that is what I need now,” Gurindervir said.

It was not his best performance, not even close to his own meet record set in 2021 (10.27s, also his personal best), but the 23-year old was not disappointed.

Given the struggles he had been through to get back on the track, he felt it was only a matter of time before he was back in form.