New Delhi: Gurindervir Singh has been carrying a crumpled ₹500 note in his phone case for years, a yellowing souvenir of austere times and a reminder of how far he has come. The story goes back “at least 4-5 years” when, driving through Punjab, he realised he didn’t have money to pay the toll.
Event Context
“A friend took pity and gave me this. It’s another matter that I found a way to bypass the toll plaza and saved this money,” he recalled. “I decided I’ll never spend this. It keeps me humble and honest.”
He is reluctant to share any more details — “Those are reserved for my biopic” — but Gurindervir’s penchant for glory is unmistakable. Without doubt, a creditable show at the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Glasgow will go a fair way in establishing him. That’s because when the 25-year-old from Jalandhar goes off the blocks at Scotstoun Stadium on Monday, he’ll become the first Indian male to run the 100m at the CWG.
“I have improved a lot physically. I am in the best shape of my life,” he said. There is little contesting that, if you look at his defined deltoids or rippling abs. His body fat percentage hovers around 6 percent in loading phase and drops to 5 percent as the competition approaches. He loves his squats, hang cleans and power cleans, and claims to be the heaviest lifter in the Indian sprinting group.
“My hang clean, on an average, is 145kg. My half squat is 220kg, almost double my body weight,” he said. Race-wise, he rates his start off the blocks as his biggest strength but tends to tail off in the last 30 metres.
“My speed endurance is low and I have been working hard to improve it. I have strengthened my ankles and foot strike. I hit my top speed by 30m, maintain it to 70m before slowing down. I’d say it’s a decent pattern and I can go under 10s if I am able to maintain my top speed for a longer distance. Whether that will happen in Glasgow, I don’t know. I have shown decent improvement in my 60m time this year so that has compensated for the last 30m,” he explained.
Team Analysis
“A sport flourishes on showmanship and rivalry, that’s the fun of it,” he said. That predilection for showmanship cost him crucial milliseconds in Ranchi where he ripped off his bib before crossing the finish line. “It happens; we’re all young and want to show off. But my coach (James Hillier) later told me I could’ve touched 10.05s but for that stunt,” he said.
Match Outlook
Irrespective of the result, he has already carved a small slice of history. “Honestly, I don’t look at it that way. I am not going to Glasgow to make up the numbers. I want to do something special,” he says.
A personal best and national record of 10.09s, achieved at this year’s Federation Cup in Ranchi where the national record (NR) was switched thrice in two days, fills him with belief.
Athletics is one of the few remaining disciplines in the CWG that has a high level of competition. The dominance of fast men from the Caribbean, Canada, England, and South Africa has meant sub-continental athletes have pretty much drawn a blank at CWG. In the 98 iterations of the Games, only once has a South Asian man stood on the 100m podium. The honour went to Sri Lanka’s Yupun Abeykoon who took bronze in Birmingham four years back.
“I don’t think it’s a genetic thing. Indian genes are good, and I shall prove it,” he asserts.
On the evidence of this century’s CWG data, Gurindervir’s NR, should he replicate it in cold Glasgow, will win him a medal. But here’s the catch: For all its data-driven analytics, for all its predictive models, and for all the giant leaps in sports science, sport is still neither determined nor defined by crude numbers. More so the blink-and-miss 100m.
The blue riband event of any multi-discipline showpiece, ‘the 100’ is arguably the sexiest athletic endeavour there is, testing the extremities of what mind and muscle can achieve. It’s also the spectacle that has historically produced some of sport’s greatest showmen — think Usain Bolt or Noah Lyles. Gurindervir is aware of that.
For all his promise and panache, Gurindervir’s career could have ended prematurely. Lack of funds and facilities meant he had no nutritional guidance during his training days in Punjab, which led to severe infection in his gut lining. Things began to look up when he moved to Reliance Foundation two years back.
Gurindervir’s measured responses are a significant departure from his personality on track, where his flowing beard, aggressive exhortations and imposing presence build a menacing aura around him. The aggression, Gurindervir insists, is not performative.
“It’s down to my pre-race routine where, among other things, I remember my roots. I tell myself I come from a martial clan and I draw a lot of inspiration from that. It gives me a feeling of invincibility on the tracks.”
