30-04-2025
Competitors as individuals, fastest as a team: Gurindervir, Animesh, Manikanta, Amlan set 4x100m national record in first attempt
Just moment after the quartet of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain broke the 15-year-old men's 4X100m relay national record at the Sector 7 Sports Complex, the four sprinters formed a huddle for their own private celebration.
The timing of 38.69 seconds, recorded at the second Indian Open Relay Competition on Wednesday, bettered the previous mark by 0.2 seconds, all the more impressive as it was the first time the quartet competed as a team.
All the four runners, who also compete in individual events, are part of the Reliance Foundation – Singh, Hoblidhar and Borgohain training together in Mumbai while Kujur does so in Odisha.
'We are not jealous and I don't feel bad when one of them runs better than me. We sprinters are like a family and push each other. Hence, we give each other a run of their money in the 100m races and want to do the same as a team in the relay format,' says Borgohain.
The men's 4X100m relay team of Gurindervir Singh (Second from left), Manikanta Hoblidhar, Amlan Borgohain and Animesh Kujur, with coaches James Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation (First from left), and Martin Owens, head coach, Reliance Foundation at the second Indian Open Relay Competition in Chandigarh on Wednesday. (express Photo | Jasbir Malhi)
In 2022, Borgohain had set the 200m national record by clocking 20.52 seconds and last week, Kujur bettered his mark (20.40) at the Federation Cup in Kochi.
The narrative is similar between Hoblidhar and Singh. In 2023, the former broke Amiya Malik's seven year-old 100m national record by finishing in 10.23 seconds. Singh went lower (10.20) at the Indian Grand Prix in March.
'Each one of us knows our strengths and weaknesses and even when we compete individually, we try to help each other improve. I am a good starter and with Aminesh being more of a 200m runner, he keeps asking me how to improve in that regard. So we discussed how to touch the starting block with the front leg, so that his start gets better,' Singh says.
'Similarly, Manikanta is very good on the curve on the track and Amlan is very good in terms of his push at the end. So these things, I discuss with them and it helps me in individual races. And now these have helped us as a team to break the national record.'
Earlier on Wednesday, the quartet missed the national record in the heats by four-hundredth of a second. Singh ran the first leg followed by Kujur, Hoblidhar and Borgohain, it all came together in the final as they broke the record set by Rahamatulla Molla, Suresh Sathya, Shameer Mon and A Qureshi at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. It was the longest-standing national record in track competitions.
The timing clocked by the quartet on Wednesday would have seen India win the bronze at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
'It was the idea of our coaches James Hillier and Martin Owen to make us practise in this formation. We knew we had to stick to our strengths. Without that, we could not have achieved this national mark,' says Kujur.
'That's the combination we will run in and each one of us knows that he has to better himself in his own leg so that we are better as a team as well as individually,' says Hoblidhar, as he is approached by a spectator for a selfie.
Time to improve further
The World Relay Championships qualification will held in China next month. The top 16 teams from the Paris Olympics and the top 16 in world rankings till April 13 will make it, and the Indian team is currently on the outside.
'Each of them is a different individual. Gurindervir is a very good starter and strong athlete but an introvert. Animesh is a chaser and keeps asking questions. Manikantha is the speed merchant and Amlan has got the experience,' Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation, said. 'And the one advantage they have is that they train together for much of the year and will compete in relays more from now on. This is unlike the US or Great Britain, where the top sprinters only train for 1-2 weeks in a year.'
Hillier was cheering for the quartet from the stands along with Martin Owens, head coach, Reliance Foundation. Hillier, 47, who worked with the British junior relay teams from 2010 to 2016.
'We saw top sprinters in Great Britain not gelling together and there were multiple instances of dropping the baton. Such things can happen when athletes don't train together and also train under different coaches. I see these guys moving to 38.4s and 38.2s soon. Similarly the target now is to touch the 10.1 mark individually in the 100m and if one does it, others too would follow,' he said.
Hillier believes not competing against world-class quartets was a major reason holding Indian relay teams back over the years.
'The key would be to compete in as many overseas competitions on different tracks like Mondo and they will improve further,' says Hillier.
While the world leading time this year is 37.87 seconds, set by the Australian quartet of Joshua Azzopardi, Lachlan Kennedy, Christopher Ius and Calab Law, the British national record of 37.36 seconds sits in the name of Adam Gemili, Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake. At the 2017 World Championships, the British 4X100m relay team of Chijindu Ujah, Adam Gemilli, Danny Talbot and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake won the gold with a timing of 37.47 seconds.
At last year's Paris Olympics, the Great Britain team of Jeremiah Azu, Louie Hinchcliffe, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Zharnel Hughes had the country's first podium finish in the event since the 1988 Seoul Olympics with a bronze medal.
