India doesn’t really boast of a huge track and field athletes getting global recognition and excelling in their fields, although after the 2022 Olympics, Indian Track and Field Athletes had started grabbing eyeballs thanks to Neeraj Chopra.
Born in Punjab, Gurindervir Singh has clinched the gold medal in the men's 100m event at the 2026 Athletics Federation Cup, with a new national record of 10.09 seconds at Ranchi. He has improved his personal best of 10.17 seconds as he comfortably surpassed the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow time limit for qualification of 10.19 seconds.
Animesh Kujur secured the silver medal with a timing of 10.20 seconds, while Pranav Pramod took bronze, clocking 10.29 seconds.
Gurindervir Singh was born in Punjab, and his inspiration is his father Kamaljeet Singh, who is an ex-retired Punjab Police Constable and also a national-level volleyball player. His inspiration to represent India and be in sports came up during Diwali Clean Up while cleaning his father’s medals and trophies, and looking at his old pictures smashing volleyballs in the air.
He has also faced a lot of criticism from society, telling that Indian’s don’t excel in the 100m sprint, but Gurindervir proved them wrong, making the national record.
Who is Gurindervir Singh?
Gurindervir Singh started training for sprints at an early age of 12 when his father Kamaljeet Singh saw the spark in him as he pushed his son. He started his training running along rugged village tracks, but as he reached 13 years of age, moving to Cambridge School Jalandar, his skills were noticeable.
There, he met his first coach and guide, Sarabjit Singh Happy. Their bond went way ahead of just a player and a coach, as Happy Singh saw in him raw talent and his financial constraints. He literally adopted Gurindervir, giving him nutritional support, an environment where he could focus and treating him like his own son.
As he advanced to Under 16, older sprinters doing better than him shook his confidence. It was advice from his maternal uncle (mamaji), as that shifted his mindset forever: "Sher eko hi hunda jungle vich, bakriyan bahut firdi, hun tu sher banke khel".
Coached by James Hillier at the Reliance Foundation, Gurindervir also holds national records in the 60 metres (6.60 seconds) and was part of the record-setting 4x100m relay team (38.69 seconds) in 2025. He had previously broken the 100m national record in March 2024 at the Indian Grand Prix with a time of 10.20 seconds.
“They told me there’s no future in the 100m. I should instead try to run the 400m. They said the 100m was not for Indians. Indians didn’t have the body type for it. But I wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted to prove Indian genes tagde hain,” he told Sportstar.
Gurindervir Singh stood tall against all the odds and proved his mettle beyond the finish line.
