Gurindervir, Punjab’s new sprint king

Indervir Grewal

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 22

When Gurindervir Singh stepped up to the starting line in the 100m final at the 14th Youth National Athletic Championship in Hyderabad on Friday, he saw familiar faces around him.

Gurindervir had a quiet rivalry going on with some of the other north Indian sprinters, against whom he had competed at the north zone qualifiers. The 17-year-old from Punjab had two athletes from Haryana and one each from UP and Uttarakhand pitted against him on Friday.

Next to Gurindervir, who had eased through the preliminaries, was Delhi’s Palender Singh. Palender had matched Gurindervir’s 10.87 seconds in the semifinals, the fastest time.

No distraction

Personal rivalries, though exciting, can be distracting. But Gurindervir was focussed on one target — running under 10.80s. “I was going for the meet record,” said Gurindervir, whose personal best had been 10.85s, recorded at the school Nationals earlier this year, when he won gold.

On Friday, though pushed till the end by Palender, Gurindervir was “never worried” during the race. As he leaned forward across the finish line in first place, Gurindervir not only achieved his target, bettering A Yesudasa’s meet record of 10.79s, but he also stole the limelight. Gurindervir clocked 10.74s, beating Palender (10.80s), and also breaking Praveen Muthukumaran's six-year-old national record of 10.77s.

“My coach had told me that I could break the national record,” said Gurindervir, who trains under Sarabjit Singh at the Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) academy in Jalandhar. Sarabjit had set him a target of 10.75s. “I was confident he could break the national record because of his recent timings in training,” said Sarabjit. 

Running for glory

Gurindervir, who hails from Patial village near Bhogpur town in Jalandhar district, started training under Sarabjit three years ago. “Before that, he was training at his village under Sarwan Singh,” Sarabjit added.

Gurindervir comes from a family of sportspersons. “My father was a national level volleyball player and my grandfather played kabaddi,” said Gurindervir, a Class 11 student at the Cambridge International School in Jalandhar. “I have always been into sports, playing different sports. But my passion was always athletics.” Sarabjit added that Gurindervir’s ambition is very different from the other boys his age. “He doesn’t do it to get a job. He wants to achieve something great,” Sarabjit said.

Bigger targets

Gurindervir’s blazing run in Hyderabad earned him a berth in the Asian Youth Athletic Championship as well as the World U-18 Athletic Championships. Gurindervir said he was aiming for a silver medal at the Asian meet. “In the last edition, the bronze medallist’s time was around 10.80s.”

With growing confidence, he has now set himself the target of going under 10.70s. It’s a long way from the 11.30s he used to clock three years ago. Sarabjit said things had particularly improved after PIS was established almost two years ago. “We get a lot of support, be it financial or technical. We get modern equipment like ropes and boxes for training. Working with ropes and bands over the last year has helped Gurindervir improve a lot,” Sarabjit said. 

“Earlier, he had to commute from his village every day to train in Jalandhar. Now he stays in the PIS hostel at Burlton Park and studies in a good school.”

Sarabjit said winning the 100m gold was a big achievement. “Punjab has not been among the contenders in the sprint events for many years now,” the coach said. 

“We have been good at the throws, but athletes from the southern states have dominated the sprints. So I am very proud of Gurindervir’s feat.”

PIS walkers win three medals

Akriti and Baljeet Kaur took the top two positions in the girls’ 5km walk event today. Akriti won the gold in 25.30 minutes, while Baljeet Kaur took the silver in 26.05 minutes. Meanwhile, Akashdeep Singh won the bronze medal in the boys’ 10km walk, finishing in 45.39 minutes. He has qualified for the Asian Youth Athletic Championship. The three athletes train at the PIS, Patiala centre under Gurdev Singh. Baljeet took up the event only eight months ago. She was a boxer before, Gurdev said.