'Little improvements, lot's of training': How sprint sensation Animesh Kujur became India's fastest man

There hasn’t been a more popular event than the 100m race in athletics. And sprint prodigy Animesh Kujur was the favourite as the athletes lined-up for the biggest event during the 2024 Federation Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

The result though surprised everyone.

Gurindervir Singh, who didn’t have any sponsor at that time, won the race ahead of Kujur with an advantage of .15 seconds. The saving grace on the day was the Chhattisgarh-born athlete winning his favourite 200m race, with a timing of 20.62s.

Fast forward a little over a year, Gurindervir now has some of the best support in the country with Reliance Foundation backing the athlete, but it’s their original star, Kujur, who leads the race timings for India in both the 100m and 200m races.

Record-breaking year for Kujur as records shatter

At Federation Cup 2025 in April, Kujur broke the 200m national record (NR) of 20.52s with a blistering timing of 20.40s and then bettered it a few days later at the Asian Athletics Championship with a new NR of 20.32s.

Even more sensational has been the 22-year-old’s rapid rise in 100m. On 5 July, Kujur became the first Indian to hit a timing of 10.1s in the event, as he registered a new NR of 10.18s while winning the Dromia International Sprint and Relays Meeting in Greece.

To become the first Indian athlete to achieve a sub-10.20 second time in the 100m, Kujur had to shave off nearly .10 seconds from his personal best of 10.27s as he broke the NR of 10.20s set by Gurindervir at the Indian Grand Prix in March 2025.

While the lightning improvement in Kujur’s race timings in the last 12 months may come as a surprise for many, his coach Martin Owens, also the head trainer at the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High Performance Centre, feels it has come a few months late.

“I think he was in shape to break it in February at the National Games,” Owens told Firstpost on a call from Switzerland. “I thought he was in shape then to do it. He just got shocking appalling start. The blocks were a bit funny. I mean, he wouldn’t admit that in public, but he was worried about the blocks were shaky and he was worried about foul start, so he sat and waited.

“But if you look at that race, if he’d started well, if he started like he did in the tour, he’d have broken national record then. No, not surprise at all. All we were waiting for was the right race.”

Nonetheless, once Kujur scripted history at Athens, Owens could not keep calm. “The stadium clock had come up at 10.20, which equals the old record. And the announcer just announced 10.18s and I’m screaming from a stand. 10.18, that’s a new record. 10.18s, National Record. And it’s legal. It’s legal,” Owens, former running coach with England athletics, added, recalling his reaction to the first sub-10.20 second timing by an Indian in 100m.

“The thing is, the track wasn’t particularly fast. It’s not a fast track. It’s not a hard, fast track. It’s just been relayed. It was quite spongy. We haven’t focussed on the 100m here. We’ve really focussed on the two (200m) because that’s our best chance of getting to the World Championship.”

Kujur and coach Owens are currently engaged in more training at the Magglingen Sportzentrum, Bern in Switzerland as the Indian athlete gets ready for the Under-23 Men’s 200m race at the Monaco Diamond League (11 July) on his European tour.

Owens reveals that their aim is to help reduce Animesh his 200m timing to 20.16s, which would see him qualify for the World Athletics Championships.

“At the moment, we are working a lot on stuff. We work on speed endurance, top-end speed and everything. Curve running, running off the bend. He’s got a good training group as well. He’s got some really good young lads that push him in training.”

And that’s where his current European tour is crucial. It was a similar European trip last year that kicked off the sharp reduction in his race timings.

“Last year changed him as an athlete. I mean, you can be the best athlete in India and you can come to Europe and you know, you’re not doing anything. So when he came, he saw what he needed to do, saw where he wanted to be. He wanted to be faster.”

Kujur’s secret sauce to keep getting better

Whether 20.16 will happen or not is impossible to predict, but the recent significant drop in his timings shows that Kujur is on the right path. But how is he making it happen? Owens believes it’s the footballer-turned-sprinter’s mindset, his belief in his ability and their shared commitment to improving every day.

“He’s what we call intrinsically motivated. He wants to be the best Animesh Kujur. Not bother about the national records, doesn’t bother about medals. He’s not running for a job. He wants to be the best he can be. Everything else comes because of that.

“So if he becomes the best he can be, then he wins races, then he breaks national records. You know, we’re working on stuff here today. You know, we were quite tired. We caught up this morning, was a long day travelling back from Athens. But we are out, working, making everything better. And that’s what we’re trying to do all the time is little improvements.”

So, how far can he go? Quite far, says Owens, considering his age and the support he’s receiving.

“The average prime age in sprinting was about 21, 22 in the past. But that’s because back in the day, you had to leave athletics and go get a proper job. Now people can make long careers out of it. So if you look at Shelly-Ann (Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce), she’s still going at the age of 38, (Usain) Bolt was still going quite late. You know, you can make your career out of it. As long as you look after your body. And we really lucky. I mean, Animesh is really lucky. The setup in Bhubaneswar with a combination between the government and Reliance, he’s got fantastic physio support. To keep the body in shape, nutrition is really important, sleep is really important. So he’s got no pressure, really.

“…So, yeah, he’s just got to keep chipping away. He’s just turned 22. He’s got some Olympics in him. That’s what we’re aiming for. And we’ve got a 20.32s, maybe 20.16 is the time. It’ll be nice.”