‘Outstanding' Animesh Kujur dazzles with 200m national record at Asian Athletics Championships

Indian Express

2 days ago

Breaking records is becoming habitual for Animesh Kujur. On Saturday at the Asian Athletics Championships, the 21-year-old lowered the national record in the 200 metres for the second time in just over a month. At the Federation Cup in Kochi, in April, he clocked 20.40 seconds to break Amlan Borgohain's mark of 20.52. In Gumi, South Korea, the stakes were high when Animesh lined up in a field that included Japan's Towa Uzawa, the defending champion. At the Fed Cup, he was expected to win, but performance in Gumi would tell if he was cut out for the big stage.
Blazing start isn't the lanky sprinter's strength but he tamed the bend and finished strongly to become India's first medal winner in the 200 metres at the Asian Championships in a decade. Animesh didn't allow a false start by China's Shi Junao to distract him. A bronze clinched with a time of 20.32 seconds and a new national record. Defending champion Uzawa won the gold (20.12S) and Saudi Arabia's Abdulaziz Abdul Atafi saw off a later surge from Animesh to take the silver (20.31S).
'I knew there was a 20.05 sprinter and a 20.14 second sprinter, so I would get a good push. Every time before a race I start thinking that my start won't be good. But this time I kept the negativity aside. When the curve ended I felt like I was ahead,' Animesh said.
However, when he stood on the podium, Animesh was a bit dejected. Only the national anthem of the winner's country is played. 'Standing on the podium and hearing the Indian national anthem play is a different feeling. This medal is a motivation as it was my first at an international level for me,' Animesh said.
Adille Sumariwalla, a vice president of World Athletics and former 100 metre national champion rated Animesh as 'amongst the best sprinters he has seen in India. 'I think he is an outstanding athlete. If he can improve his start a little more he will be impossible to beat,' Sumariwalla said.
After winning gold at the Federation Cup, Animesh had set his target. 'I want to become the first athlete (from India) to run below 20 seconds,' Animesh had said.
Martin Owens, head coach of the Odisha-Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre, said he was 'stressed' till Animesh won the medal. Owens didn't travel to Gumi, so caught the action on YouTube. The coach was also worried because Animesh was under the weather. 'He has had a fever for two days, had a bit of congestion, could not breathe properly, he was a bit snorty. He was in bed for two days and only got up to race. He was probably worse yesterday (during the heats) than today,' Owens said.
Owens coaches Animesh at the high performance centre in Bhubaneswar. He believes there is a sureshot way for Animesh to get faster: Compete regularly with faster sprinters.
'We knew he had to go abroad to race. And this (Asian Championships) gave us the first opportunity to race against people who are very fast. This is an outstanding achievement for someone who ran his first major international championships. Remember, he hasn't done age-group championships. He's taken two-tenths off the national record in the last month, which is a big step forward,' Owens said.
Animesh, however, is still work-in-progress, the coach said. He needs to start better, improve his speed when on the bend and then can take full advantage of his strong finish.
Though Animesh has been putting in the hours to gain a faster start, Owens said he didn't want it to come at the expense of his strengths.
'We worked on his start but we didn't want to sacrifice his top-end speed and his speed-endurance. You can't neglect anything. But he is very strong in that part (home straight) of the race, we don't want to ruin that by fixing something else. We want a strong race all around.'
Next stop for Animesh is a competition in Taiwan before stopovers for races in Geneva, Athens and Monte Carlo. Owens predicts that Animesh will break the national record again this season.
'I think he will break the record again this summer. Given the right race and the right conditions he can blow that (record) out of the water. I am hopeful of some very fast times this season.'