If you follow James Hillier closely, you will know that under the aegis of the Reliance Foundation some stellar work is going on in the Indian sprint domain under him. And in fact, the moment Reliance fielded the quartet of Gurindervir Singh, Manikanta Hoblidhar, Animesh Kujur and Amlan Borgohain in the 4x100m relay, there was anticipation all round. Serious social media influencers who follow athletics closely, like Rahul Bhutani, were confident a record could indeed happen and the 15-year-long-standing record could be broken.
The quartet came close in the morning and the anticipation was there leading up to the final. They did not disappoint as they closed the race out in 38.69 seconds, a new national record.
From here on, it can only go up and up for the Indian sprint team. Imagine each of them competing with each other. Imagine them training and practicing the baton exchange multiple times leading into major competitions. They have hardly trained together and yet this. The truth is we are indeed seeing a major revolution unfold before our eyes and it can well be that we see a sub-10 Indian sprint in the not-too-distant future.
All of a sudden, the hunger is visible. And meshed with proper scientific training and nutrition, we have a structure. A finishing school that is capable of churning out top quality sprinters. That’s the big takeaway from this national record. The sense of hope and optimism that it is just the start with plenty more good results just round the corner with Hillier in charge.