Animesh Kujur clocked a personal best of 10.14 seconds at the PUMA Fast Arms Fast Legs 2026 meet in Wetzlar on Saturday, recording the fastest 100m ever run by an Indian on foreign soil.
Animesh Kujur didn’t travel to Germany chasing a fast time. He went to Wetzlar for an Asian Games qualifying mark in the 200m. He got that — and then, almost as a footnote, ran the fastest 100m ever recorded by an Indian on foreign soil.
What happened10.14 seconds at the PUMA Fast Arms Fast Legs meet
The 22-year-old Odisha sprinter first won his 100m heat at the PUMA Fast Arms Fast Legs 2026 meet in Wetzlar on Saturday, running 10.19 seconds. Then in the final, he went quicker — 10.14 seconds, finishing second. That single hundredth of a second improvement on his previous personal best of 10.15s is the kind of detail that looks small on a stopwatch and enormous on the all-time Indian list.
Where 10.14s sits in the record books
| # | Athlete | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gurindervir Singh | 10.09s | National Record, Ranchi 2026 |
| 2 | Animesh Kujur | 10.14s | PB today, Wetzlar — fastest overseas |
| 3 | Animesh Kujur | 10.15s | Previous PB |
| 4 | Gurindervir Singh | 10.17s | |
| 5 | Animesh Kujur | 10.18s |
Put simply: Animesh now owns three of the five fastest 100m times ever recorded by an Indian. For a sprinter whose primary event is the 200m, that’s a remarkable footprint in a discipline he’s still developing.
In his own wordsWhat Animesh said after the race
Why this matters beyond the number
Animesh had already locked in Asian Games qualification in the 200m at the Inter-State National Athletics Championships in June, clocking 20.74 seconds — comfortably inside the AFI’s 20.88s standard. His coach Martin Owens had signalled that the Wetzlar meet was about race fitness and marking the Asian Games slot, not chasing records.
The fact that a 10.14s emerged anyway says something. Gurindervir Singh’s national record of 10.09s, set earlier this year in Ranchi, remains the benchmark — and both athletes were recently featured on PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat — a measure of where Indian sprinting sits culturally right now, not just statistically.
The 100m may not be Animesh’s best event, but with three of India’s five fastest ever times to his name at age 22, the direction of travel is difficult to argue with.
A 22-year-old Odisha runner goes to Germany for a 200m qualifying mark and comes back with India’s fastest-ever 100m on foreign soil. The Asian Games are still ahead of him. Gurindervir Singh holds the national record. The two of them are now pushing each other in a way Indian sprinting hasn’t seen in years — and that’s worth paying attention to, regardless of your own event.
Sources: The Statesman / India Today, July 11, 2026. Race: PUMA Fast Arms Fast Legs 2026, Wetzlar, Germany.