New race, new record: Watch Sprinter Animesh Kujur become first Indian to run 100m in less than 10.2 seconds
Starting in Lane 4, Kujur didn't have the quickest of starts and was behind the two sprinters from Greece — Theodoros Vrontinos and Sotirios Garagganis. However, in the final 40m, he shifted gears and while Vrontinos ran out of steam, Kujur piped Garagganis at the finish line to not just win the race but also set a new benchmark in Indian athletics.
This has been a breakthrough year for the 22-year-old Kujur, who rewrote the national mark in the 200m twice in two months, back in April and May. To put it in context, the 200m NR was broken two times in seven years before Kujur's emergence.
Animesh Kujur shatters India's 100m record, clocking 10.18 seconds at Dromia International Sprint and Relay Meet to rewrite the National Record. Stunning run. #athletics Video: RFYS pic.twitter.com/pFfxWltJPI
— Mihir Vasavda (@mihirsv) July 5, 2025
Kujur first rewrote the national mark in April, completing the 200m in 20.40 seconds and then improved it in May by running 20.32 seconds to become only the second-ever Indian to win a 200m medal at the Asian Championships in close to half a century. In June, Kujur ran the 200m in 20.27 seconds at the AthleticGeneve tournament but the timing wasn't considered in the official record due to a wind assistance of +2.3m/s.
The ongoing European tour has been critical in ensuring Kujur improved his timings. It was, after all, the European tour last year in June that he described as 'life-changing', for it exposed him to faster runners and their methods. Training and competing with them, he had earlier said, forced him to run faster and get better.
Explaining how that stint improved him, giving the example of a 100m sprint in Finland, Kujur had told this daily: 'I went there with a timing of 10.5 seconds. And in the second competition, in Finland, I got a Jamaican sprinter, Oshane Bailey, whose personal best was 10.05 or something in that range. To stay competitive with him in that race, I had to run fast and I ended up clocking 10.39 seconds. That's the difference…'
On Saturday, he improved his timing by another 0.21 seconds, further boosting his credentials as the country's best sprinter at the moment.
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