Not a sprint: The ‘mental block' of chasing the sub-10 mark

Hindustan Times

13-05-2025

Mumbai:For 11 years running, Paris Olympics relay silver-medallist Akani Simbine, who anchored South Africa to the men's 4x100m World Relays gold on Sunday and carries the world-leading 100m time this year, has gone under 10 seconds in 100m. It earned him the nickname of 'sub-10 king', and a record stretch that moved him past Usain Bolt (10 years).
Yet, before the 31-year-old could make the magical mark of the sprint world almost routine, he took a while to reach that threshold. For five seasons from 2010, Simbine hovered around the mid- and low- 10s, even touching 10.19 in 2012 and 10.02 in 2014. He finally ran sub-10 in 2015, and has done so every season since.
Through those five years of pushing to break that barrier for the first time, Simbine recalled being almost too obsessed with it.
'I kept running 10s, and I thought of chasing a time. And when I started chasing a time, I forgot about what sprinting means, what I actually meant to do in it, and the art of sprinting,' Simbine told HT in a World Athletics media call.
'That's like a mental block you're trying to make for yourself. As much as you say you want to run sub-10, but if you're constantly chasing that sub-10, you forget about actually putting your race together in the best possible way.'
A few Indians could well relate to those words.
The country's sprinting scene is witnessing some of its most exciting times. In March, Gurindervir Singh lowered the men's 100m national record to 10.20 from Manikanta Hoblidhar's 2023 mark of 10.23. A month later, the 100m quartet of Gurindervir, Manikanta, Animesh Kujur and Amlan Borgohain shattered the 4x100m relay national record of 15 years clocking 38.69s.
Each of these sprinters, who now train together at the Reliance Foundation's Navi Mumbai centre, has dipped below 10.30. They've all taken baby steps towards a mark that, although seems close enough on paper, is still a fair bit away in reality for Indian sprinters.
Constantly carrying that career-defining figure can indeed, as Simbine put it, lead to a mental block.
'I can relate to that,' Gurindervir said. 'Most athletes are chasing that time. They approach seasons accordingly, thinking I want to target this in a particular competition and so on. That only increases the pressure in your mind, especially when you don't meet that. You start feeling stressed, and thinking, 'I'm not able to crack it, it's taking longer than expected'. We will need to get rid of that mindset.'
It is, of course, easier said than done, but it stands as among the bigger challenges in crossing that barrier for the first time.
'I know a couple of Indian guys are knocking on the door, and I've seen a couple of them too,' said Simbine, who led South Africa to the 100m relay silver at the Paris Games and was 0.01s behind bronze medallist Fred Kerley in the 100m final.
'From my experience, the big thing was to stop thinking about it and to stop chasing the time. Because when I got better at my sprinting, that is what brought my times down over time.'
India's fastest male currently has thus begun setting time-specific targets in training rather than in races.
'In the race, my only focus is to repeat the things I've done in training and focus on specific technical aspects. I've stopped running behind specific timings in races,' Gurindervir said.
After some years of health issues and indifferent form, the Punjab sprinter has shown a significant uptick this season. Part of that is down to him joining Reliance Foundation and having access to better training facilities, coaching, other support setup and quality fellow trainees including his relay teammates. On his recent international competitive outings, the 24-year-old observed a few sub-10 sprinters.
'I realised there's plenty of difference in their body language compared to mine,' he said. 'I'm starting as well as them, but my transition after that needs improvement. Some of these things I wasn't even aware of before. Now that I am, it is about learning and improving as quickly as possible.'
Those improvements, however, will take time to show. To go from 10.2 to 10.1 or even 10.0, according to Gurindervir, will require technical changes ranging from running posture and mechanism, and adding strength to specific muscles.
'We won't get to that time in a year, because the improvements will take time to reflect on performance. Once that becomes a habit, the results will take maybe two years to show. Then, not only will the timing improve, but they will also get more consistent,' the national record holder said.
'We are all working hard towards that.'