CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

There is a significant shift in the way Indian athletics approach 100m and relay races in recent years. Swaroop Swaminathan talks to coach Hillier to understand the work going on behind the scenes, road ahead towards 2026 Asian Games and more...

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A total of 194 athletes in history have achieved that magical milestone of dipping below 10 seconds in the 100m sprint, sport in its purest adrenaline-filled form. Theatre on track.

Since 2021, athletes from Sri Lanka, China, Cameroon, Ghana and Botswana, countries with not a lot of sprinting heritage, have managed to breach the promised land. You can possibly put this down to a marriage between cutting-edge training, sports science, shoe tech and a better understanding of human physiology.

For a long time, Asian athletes were, on average, too slow in the quickest events. In competitions where fractions are the difference between first and last, they tended to lose out. That is changing. Only nine Asians have dipped below 10 seconds in the history of the 100m—seven of those did that for the first time in or after 2015. It's not immediately visible but change is afoot in India's own 100m programme.

For a long time, Amiya Kumar Mallick's 10.26-second 100m run was the gold standard. Set in New Delhi in 2016, it had eclipsed Anil Kumar's mark of 10.3, set in 2005. It took 11 years for one athlete to lower the mark by 0.04 seconds.

There's now a band of Indians threatening to breach the 10.15-second mark. In 2022, Amlan Borgohain set a time of 10.25 seconds. Manikanta Hoblidhar responded with a 10.22 in 2025. On the same day and track, Gurindervir Singh's 10.20 set a new standard. A couple of months later, on July 5, Animesh Kujur, Indian athletics' latest poster boy on track, set a new national record of 10.18. Three years, four athletes and bringing down the mark by 0.08 seconds. There are others, too.

In Chennai at the ongoing national inter-state, S Tamilarasu clocked 10.22 seconds, the fourth fastest Indian ever. He's of the belief that he can, in the future, bring that down even further.