Patial village lad Gurindervir sets junior 100m record, gets gold in 10.47s at U-20 Nationals

Indervir Grewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 21

Gurindervir Singh “doesn’t see anyone else as his competition”. The 18-year-old is not arrogant, he just “focuses” on his own timings. “I am my own competition,” Gurindervir said on the phone from Coimbatore, where he was enjoying a lazy afternoon. “My target is to beat myself, bettering my previous best,” added the Punjab sprinter, who earned the rest after having a memorable morning.

On Saturday morning, Gurindervir blew away all competition to win the 100 metres gold medal in the 16th Federation Cup National Junior (U-20) Athletics Championships. And the Jalandhar lad shattered his own previous best to set the new U-20 national record. The gold also booked him a place in the South Asian Championship in Sri Lanka (May 5-7), Asian Junior Championship in Japan (June 7-10) and World Under-20 Championship in Finland (July 10-15).

“I am feeling okay, good,” said Gurindervir, who won the final in a record timing of 10.47 seconds. “This is just the first step. I have a lot more work to do in my career.”

Gurindervir — whose previous best was 10.69s, an U-18 national record — broke Augustine Yeshudas’ record of 10.57s set in 2013. Almost a year ago on a Friday in Hyderabad, Gurindervir had won the U-18 Youth National Athletics Championships gold with a national record of 10.74s.

Rescheduling

Incidentally, his final in Coimbatore was also scheduled for Friday evening. “First his semifinal was delayed by one-and-a-half-hour because of the opening ceremony,” said Gurindervir’s coach Sarabjit Singh. “Then the final was postponed to Saturday because of an issue with the floodlights. I had imagined the race would be held in the evening as is the norm with the sprint events, but I got a call at 7am that the final was scheduled for 9am.”

Sarabjit, who is a coach at the Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) academy in Jalandhar, admitted he was a bit worried. “All this rescheduling can affect an athlete’s rhythm,” he said.

In the semifinals, Gurindervir (10.65s) had finished second behind Uttar Pradesh’s Akash Kumar (10.63s). But Gurindervir was confident. “Before the races they announced the names of the record-holders. I thought, next year they should be announcing my name,” said Gurindervir, who finished well ahead of second-placed Kumar (10.65s).

Preparing for future

It was at last April’s youth championships that Gurindervir had burst onto the national scene. Within a month, he had improved his U-18 national record to 10.69s, while winning the gold medal in the Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Bangkok. “He has a habit of improving his timing as the event progresses,” said Sarabjit. “He did that at the Asian Championships.” Between the Asian gold and the Federation Cup gold, Gurindervir participated in only two major events — the World U-18 Championships in July and the U-18 Youth Nationals in November, where he won gold. In that time, he has shed over 0.20 seconds, and since January 2017, he has improved by almost half-a-second.

Gurindervir, who hails from Patial village near Bhogpur town in Jalandhar district, started training under Sarabjit four years ago. Earlier, he had trained at his village. “A jump in his performances is expected now,” said Sarabjit. “I didn’t make him do weight-training till he turned 18. Overloading or excessive training in an early age can destroy an athlete’s career. You get instant results but it inhibits the athlete’s growth. With increased training load now, he is showing great improvement.”

Sarabjit added that he also paid attention to the number of tournaments Gurindervir participated in; he didn’t want to fast-forward the teenager into the senior circuit. “It gives us more time to work on his conditioning. We are preparing for the future, the next Asian Games and the Olympics.”

Arpandeep wins discus gold

Punjab’s Arpandeep Kaur Bajwa outclassed the field to win the discus throw gold by a margin of almost 4 metres. Her first effort of 49.56 metres was enough to get her the gold. Haryana’s Sunita (45.71m) won the bronze medal.

Haryana’s Ashish Bhalothia (17.89m) and Ashish Kumar (17.67m) won the shot put gold and bronze, respectively. Delhi’s Sahib Singh (17.79m) won silver. Seema of Himachal Pradesh finished second in 3000m in 9 minutes, 51.04 seconds. Haryana’s Jyoti (42.19 metres) finished third in javelin throw.

To HP in search of track 

• The scenic city of Dharamsala had a big role to play in Gurindervir Singh’s gold-winning feat. In the run-up to the Federation Cup, Gurindervir trained in Dharamsala for 20 days. It was not just for high-altitude training that coach Sarabjit Singh decided to shift base from Jalandhar. It was in search of a synthetic track that took Sarabjit and his trainees on the 200km long journey. “The synthetic track in Jalandhar is more than 20 years old,” said Sarabjit. “The life of a synthetic track is 8-10 years.” Punjab has synthetic tracks in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Tarn Taran, Patiala and Sangrur. However, the one in Ludhiana is also over 15 years old. In Patiala, the tracks are at the Punjabi University and the NIS. That leaves only two synthetic tracks under the Sports Department that are fit for training. Sarabjit said he was impressed by the condition of the synthetic track in Dharamsala.