Gurindervir Singh: Age, Training and the Story Behind India’s Historic 10.09 Second Sprint

On the evening of May 23, 2026, at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi, Gurindervir Singh did something no Indian sprinter had ever done. He crossed the 100 metre finish line in 10.09 seconds — shattering the national record and becoming the first person from this country to run faster than 10.10 seconds. In the stands, celebrations erupted. On the track, Gurindervir held up a handwritten note. It read: “Task is not finished yet.”

(Image: Athletics Federation of India / X)

That sentence tells you everything about who this 25-year-old from rural Punjab is.

Where Is Gurindervir Singh From?

Gurindervir Singh hails from Patial village, near Bhogpur town in the Jalandhar district of Punjab. Growing up in an agrarian setting, he did not have access to top-notch training facilities for most of his youth. What he did have was a father who understood sport.

His father Kamaljeet Singh is a former volleyball player who trained him from childhood with whatever knowledge he had. “I got my first spikes when I was in 7th standard. That is the reason my basics are solid,” Gurindervir has said.

His life changed when he moved to Jalandhar to train under coach Sarabjit Singh at the Punjab Institute of Sports academy — his first real exposure to professional coaching and structured athletic development.

What Happened at the 2026 Federation Cup?

The race in Ranchi was not just a final. It was a 24-hour sprint drama unlike anything Indian athletics had seen.

The national record changed hands three times in under 24 hours. In the semi-finals, Gurindervir broke the existing record by clocking 10.17 seconds — only for rival Animesh Kujur to respond minutes later in the next heat with 10.15 seconds, reclaiming it. Then came the final.

The 25-year-old stormed to victory in 10.09 seconds, becoming the first Indian sprinter to breach the 10.10-second barrier. Animesh finished second in 10.20 seconds, followed by Pranav Gurav in 10.29 seconds.

Gurindervir’s time produced Asia’s second fastest 100m this season, behind only 19-year-old Japanese sprinter Fukuto Komuro who clocked 10.08 seconds in May. He also comfortably cleared the 10.16-second qualifying standard for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It was also a historic evening for Indian athletics broadly. Tejaswin Shankar became the first Indian to breach 8000 points in the decathlon with 8057, and Vishal TK became the first Indian to run the 400 metres in under 45 seconds, clocking 44.98. Three national records. One evening.

The Years Nobody Talks About

The 10.09 seconds arrived after years that would have broken most athletes.

Gurindervir lost 2022 entirely to a digestive illness — the mucous lining of his stomach weakened and thinned out, leaving him unable to absorb nutrition properly. He spent most of 2023 recovering. By his own admission, he was broken on the inside during this period.

In 2024, he made an explosive comeback — winning both the Federation Cup and the Inter-State Championship. But the national record still eluded him, held instead by Animesh Kujur. Then came the call to join the Reliance Foundation’s elite sprint programme in Mumbai under British coach James Hiller.

How Does Gurindervir Singh Train?

This is what makes his story relevant beyond the record — the shift in how he approaches the craft of running.

Moving to the Reliance Foundation in Mumbai transformed his training environment. Elite facilities, world-class coaching, and the competitive presence of training partners like Amlan Borgohain and Manikanta Hoblidhar pushed him beyond what he could do alone. “I was looking for an environment where people would push me,” he has said.

The biggest revelation for him wasn’t speed — it was structure. “I used to do weight training, but now I’m learning how to lift weight: in what period should we lift how much weight, how many reps to do, volume of lifting… now, everything is going in a structured manner,” he told ESPN. He credits his first record with the facilities, not the coaching — suggesting the coaching’s full impact was still ahead.

As a long-distance runner, I find this deeply familiar. It’s the same truth endurance athletes learn — raw fitness only takes you so far. The structure of when and how you load your body is where the real performance gains live. Gurindervir found his structure at 24. The 10.09 is the first proof of what that structure can produce.

What Does 10.09 Mean for Indian Athletics?

To run 100 metres in 10.09 seconds, a sprinter must reach top speeds of around 37–38 kilometres per hour and maintain near-maximum muscular output for roughly ten full seconds — with absolutely no margin for technical error. The acceleration phase, the drive phase, and the finish must be mechanically close to perfect.

Indian sprinting has historically lagged behind African and Caribbean programmes — not for lack of talent, but for lack of structured high-performance pathways. What Gurindervir’s record demonstrates is that when the infrastructure exists — proper coaching, elite training partners, nutrition science, and recovery protocols — Indian sprinters can compete at the highest level.

His goal, stated clearly: sub-10 seconds. “Won’t stop until I run under 10 seconds,” he has said publicly. Given that he clocked 10.09 while still in his mid-twenties and having, by his own reckoning, barely tapped the potential of his training environment, that target looks entirely credible.

FM Bottom Line: Gurindervir Singh is 25, from a village in Punjab, trained by a father with no sprint background, and became India’s fastest man the hard way — through illness, setbacks, and a refusal to stop. The 10.09 seconds is a national record. The note he held up after crossing the line says the rest: task is not finished yet. Watch this athlete.

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