Meet Animesh Kujur: India's fastest man, breaking one barrier at a time

India Today

6 days ago

"I will qualify for the World Athletics Championships, stop worrying!" Animesh Kujur poked his coach Martin Owens, while speaking in a select round table from the Monaco Diamond League.If he does, Kujur, 22, will make history as India's first-ever men's representative in the showpiece 100 and 200m sprint at the World Athletics Championships. Born in rural Chhattisgarh (Ghuitangar village), Kujur is rewriting the history of Indian track and field. He is already the fastest man in India, having run the 100m sprint in 10.18 seconds, breaking the sub-10.20 barrier previously held by Gurindervir Singh.advertisementAt just 22, standing at 6ft 2in tall, Kujur is making big strides. In July, he got a taste of his first Diamond League event, where he went shoulder to shoulder against Australian prodigy Gout Gout, who is already turning heads in the athletics world.Glimpse of World Stage at Monaco
In the Monaco Diamond League, Kujur competed in the U-23 200m event, becoming India's first ever participant in the sprint competition. Rather than be overwhelmed by the grand stage, he propelled himself in the hunt for the podium against some of the biggest up-and-coming talents in the world.Unbothered by the attention and undeterred by the competition, Kujur ran hard (20.55), but missed the podium by only one-tenth of a second, behind South Africa's Jack Naeem (20.42 seconds).This timing is significant. India has rarely been seen in world-class sprinting events like the 100m or 200m, but Kujur is changing that perception. Hailing from the eastern border of Chhattisgarh, he is ticking off records and bringing India into the conversation.
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While a direct qualification to the World Championships (10.00 in 100m, 20.16 in 200m) seems unlikely, Kujur is poised to qualify through the ranking system. Still, he remains determined to secure a direct qualification, a testament to the fire within him."Animesh's not motivated by medals or records, those come as side effects. He wants to improve for himself. And that's why coming to the Grand Prix was special, to see what top athletes do differently, lifestyle choices, sacrifices. It's not just running and lifting weights, it's missing out on things like ice cream, weddings, etc," Kujur's coach Owens, who accompanied him for the interview, chimed in from the side.Owens believes that coming to the Diamond League, getting to be around Olympic Champions like Noah Lyles (100m) and Letsile Tebogo (200m) was a step in the right direction for the young athlete.' ' - ' .Animesh Kujur gearing up for Diamond League 2025, Monaco.#RFSports #Letsplay #AnimeshKujur pic.twitter.com/8TbdrOlUJ8— RelianceFoundationSports (@RFYouthSports) July 11, 2025"I saw Lyles and Tebogo, took photos with them, and observed their warm-up routines. I learned so much to apply to my own training. The crowd was packed, the adrenaline was high: I just wanted to run," Kujur said enthusiastically.advertisementHowever, Kujur admitted he was not satisfied with his Monaco performance. His 20.55 was slower than his personal best of 20.32 seconds.Having said that, in athletics, times can be deceptive. The race was run into a strong headwind (-1.9m/s), which slowed down all competitors. Plus, Monaco was Kujur's third race in Europe this season, and fatigue took its toll."We've already done three competitions in Europe and have three more ahead. We need to get back to basics," Owens said, noting Kujur's fitness lagged behind fresher athletes.The Beginning of Animesh KujurBefore he was rubbing shoulders with Olympic champions, Kujur was far from the world of professional athletics. In fact, during the Covid-19 lockdown, he wasn't even sprinting seriously. A footballer in his early days, he would occasionally run with army personnel near his village of Ghuitangar - a place with no track, no coaching, and no real blueprint for producing elite athletes. It was the last place anyone expected a generational sprinting talent to emerge.But as they say, all great odysseys begin with a single step. For Kujur, it was a simple suggestion: "Why don't you run in a local race?"Once he ran his first race, something clicked. The adrenaline rush changed his outlook forever.advertisementThe story gets a little hazy here.
"He was a big lad really, and begged me to take him into the Reliance Foundation HPC (High Performance Centre)," Owens chimed in with a joke."There's a funny story. He says I begged him to join, but I say he begged me. So one of us has a better memory," Owens said, just about managing to get his words out, through a bellyful of laughter.Under Owens, Kujur quickly proved his talent by winning the U-23 200m at his first age-group championship. His massive frame led some to suspect age fraud, but his raw speed was undeniable."He was raw, very raw, so we thought we could do something with him. Once he joined HPC, we realised he couldn't move. He had no range of movement. So we did a lot of mobility work and loosened him up," Owens recalled.Why did he persist with Animesh, despite a late start to his sprinting journey? Owens says it was Animesh's humility that stood out. And that, it still does.advertisement"The other quality of his is him as a young man, he's incredibly polite, incredibly careful, and incredibly caring for other people. And he is driven by the best he can be," Owens said.Breaking One Barrier at a TimeThat drive to be the best he can be shows in his progress.According to Owens, the race that put Animesh in the limelight (2025 National Games), where he clocked a 10.28, was an awful run."He was in phenomenal shape at National Games. After a slow start, he just ran through the field and smashed the national record," Owens said.Since then, Kujur shaved off 0.10 seconds at the Dromia Meet in Greece, becoming the fastest Indian alive.To qualify for the World Championships, Animesh needs a 10-second flat run in the 100m and 20.16 in the 200m.How close is he?
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With the right person, in the right conditions, at the right time? Owens believes that any one of the top five Indian sprinters can reach that mark at the moment, especially Kujur.advertisement"I'll be the happiest man in India when anyone breaks 10 seconds, so people stop asking me 'when is it going to happen?' Have patience and trust in the process. It will happen with the right person, the right race, right conditions, might be Animesh or someone else. Then the Indian press can go mad!" Owens said.Animesh adds to that. He not only adds, but stresses it."In the National Games, I was in shape to run below 10-flat, but because of my start, I couldn't. Coach said it will take time; just keep faith. We will make you run below 10 in 100 and 20-below in 200. Just trust the process," he said.Raising the BarThe performance data from the Monaco Diamond League shows that Animesh was on par with the generational Gout Gout between the 40-130m mark. In the other sections, Gout Gout was a little bit faster, maybe just by a tenth here and there.Owens is confident targeted training will make Kujur faster across every segment in the 200m race."We want every section faster. Even the sections where Animesh matched Gout Gout, we want him faster. We'll work on weaknesses and raise strengths," Owens said.And that was perhaps the whole point of the exposure in the Monaco Diamond: to see where Animesh stood among the rising talents in the world.
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Animesh has a busy season ahead. On July 15, he finished second at a silver standard meet in Luzern, clocking 10.28 seconds in the 100m sprint, well ahead of India's next best, Gurindervir Singh (10.54). Next, he will train in Bochum, Germany, before returning to India for more meets, all leading up to the World Championships.The fact that neither the sprinter nor the coach were happy with Monaco, and are taking on one competition after another, speaks volumes about India's rising aspirations in sprinting.Once unheard of, India now boasts several sprinters targeting the elusive sub-10 second mark, with Kujur leading the pack.As he pushes through a packed season, one wonders what shift that one gold medal in Tokyo made to the aspirations of Indian athletics. Now, sprinters like Kujur are daring to dream bigger, running not just against time, but toward a future where Indian names are no longer absent from sprinting's grandest stages.And when that sub-10 barrier finally falls, it won't just be a record broken. It'll put India on the map of world track and field events. And whether it's Kujur who crosses that line first, or someone following in his slipstream, it will be a moment born from belief, built on sacrifice, and carried by the rhythm of a country learning to sprint.- EndsYou May Also Like