100 metre in 10.2 sec, Gurindervir is 'Flying Sikh-2'

Hailing from a non-descript Patial village of Bhogpur town, 24-year-old Gurindervir Singh has become the fastest runner that the country has produced so far. His feat of making a new national record by completing 100m race in 10.20 seconds during the Indian Grand Prix 1 at Bengaluru has overnight turned him to be 'Flying SIkh-2'.

Gurindervir ran with a white cloth covering his hair bun in a style akin to 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh, the erstwhile 400 m sprinter. His proud father ASI Kamaljit Singh, posted at Bhunga Hariana in Hoshiarpur, shared about the early years of Gurindervir. "He was a very active child. Since I too was a sportsperson and played volleyball at the national level, I could identify the sportsman qualities in him from a very young age."

Kamaljit said, " I got him admitted to Guru Nanak Mission School at Dalla in Class VI, which was over 13 km away from our village. The only reason for choosing the school was that it had a huge playground and coaching facilities. His coach Sarwan Singh groomed him quite well for five years".

In Class X, Gurindervir was moved to Cambridge School in Jalandhar. He started training under renowned coach Sarabjit Singh Happy. After this, there was no looking back for him. The athlete’s list of achievements included a gold at the 2017 Youth Asia Championships, a silver medal at South Asian Games 2019, a bronze at Junior Asia Championships 2018 in the relay event and another gold in the Euro-Asian Championships.

Deployed with the Navy, Gurindervir had got a shot in the arm when he was picked by Reliance for special training about six months back in Mumbai under English coach James Hiller. "We are middle class people. My brother had been stretching out completely to support Gurindervir in his sports career. There was a huge cost involved in his training, including his shoes, diet and travel for tournaments. After Reliance backed him, he was feeling so relieved", said Gurindervir's paternal uncle and sarpanch of Patial village Balwinder Singh.

Kamaljit shared how he got to know about Gurindervir's new record yesterday, "I was returning home from work last evening when I got a call from Gurindervir. He told me to apply brakes and first see his message. He had sent me a news link. It was about him making a national record in 100 m. This was one big success that he had achieved and it meant that his selection for Asian Games was almost final. He has to show his performance again in the Federation Cup next month and we are confident that he shall make it there too".

On the new popularlity of Gurindervir as Flying Sikh-2, Kamaljit said his son was spiritual. "Despite his friends coercing him to cut his hair for a better performance, he has never paid a heed. He does not even trim his beard. In fact, he inspired me to stop trimming my beard. In his adolescence days, he told me that he would keep his full beard. I responded saying that if he had such plans, he too would follow his style," he said.

Gurindervir's coach Happy has said, "It, certainly, was a big day for the athletes in India. Now, they all look upon Gurindervir as the new star. It was a well-planned training strategy that we followed on him and it has resulted in his success. We hope that he will do well in all big events ahead, including the Asian Games, Commonwealth and Olympics".

BOX:

Improvement in his speed

2017: 10.69 s

2018: 10.45 s

2019: 10.35 s

2021: 10.27 s

2024: 10.32 s

2025: 10.20 s