Got right platform at right time, says Gurindervir

Having earned the tag of the fastest Indian with a record-breaking run in the Indian Grand Prix in March, Punjab’s Gurindervir Singh was once again in the limelight on Wednesday but this time in the 4x100m relay event as the Reliance Foundation team posted a national record beating time of 38.69 seconds in the 2nd Indian Open Relay Competition here.The team of Gurindervir, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain — which started practising just a few months back — bettered the national record time of 38.89, set at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

“We didn’t expect to finish under 38.89, but it’s good to see the clock. We started practising just a few months back and this was our first race,” said Gurindervir, who hails from Patial village in Jalandhar, while clicking pictures with his young fans.

Talking about his previous record — completing the 100m in 10.20 in Bengaluru — Gurindervir explained how scientific training helped him to rule the track.

“It’s been almost six months having joined the Reliance Foundation, and I have really seen a huge change in me. I got to know about the importance of scientific training for overall development. There are minor things, like I used to shake my shoulders pretty often near the finish line or my hip position while accelerating on the track… these are some minute details but very important,” he said.

“Technical training is really important and over the years I have received so many tips from experts. We have Martin Owens and James Hiller working with us. I got the right platform at the right time,” he added.

Punjab win U20 4x100m mixed relay gold

In the U20 4x100m mixed relay event, Punjab (Jaslin Saini, Lovejot Kaur, Varun Sharma, J Dhillon) beat Chandigarh (Punya Handa, Anshika Sharma, Puneet, Gurbachan Singh) for gold. Tamil Nadu set an example by fielding their teams in all the events. The men’s 4x100m team claimed the second position. In the 4x100m mixed relay, Tamil Nadu claimed the top position, with Punjab coming in third. In the U20 men’s and mixed 4x400m relay events, Tamil Nadu finished on top, with Punjab taking bronze in the men’s section.

‘False’ start

While a new benchmark was set in the men’s 4x100m relay event, an embarrassing situation was created when a volunteer was asked to help stabilise one of the starting blocks. With one of the blocks malfunctioning before a race, a volunteer used his feet to keep the apparatus from slipping.

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