New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) Star India sprinter Animesh Kujur has changed his starting block after his heart-breaking false start at the National Indoor Championships last month, making a bold statement on Saturday that he aims to break the 10-second barrier this season.
The 22-year-old Kujur, who holds national records in the men’s 100m and 200m, won the both these events at the one-day Indian Athletics Series at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
Last month, at the state-of-the-art indoor stadium in Bhubaneswar, Kujur false-started during the 60m race final to the stunning silence of a big home crowd.
He said the false start was on his mind during the 200m race here in the morning session, but not during the 100m race in afternoon.
“I was thinking about the false start when I was about to run 200m. I was thinking that nothing like that will happen again. But I was confident before the 100m. At that time, there was no thought of the false start,” Kujur said after winning the 100m race.
“After National Indoor Championships, my coach changed my block. That block was risky. I used to take the block at the start. He (coach) changed it now and this is the new block start. It will be fun.” Asked what are his goals this season, he declared: “My target is below 10 seconds in 100m and below 20 seconds in 200m.” “Right now, my national record is 10.18 seconds. That’s why people may think it’s hard to (record) 10.16 seconds. But If I do 10.10 or 10.05 seconds, it will also be easy (to do even better).” Kujur’s national records in 100m and 200m stand at 10.18 seconds and 20.32 seconds respectively.
Kujur’s goals to run below 10 seconds in 100m and below 20 seconds in 200m would not be easy but he has been improving his timings over the three years since 2023 when he started competing at the senior level.
He said he has learnt lessons from last year and he will compete in selected events this season.
“I have learnt a lot from last year. Last year, because of the world championships, I had to play a lot of competitions. But this year, I will play in the selected competitions and I will modify my training accordingly so that I don’t make the same mistake as last time,” he said.
“It’s important to know how to handle training in between competitions. I was not able to understand how to do it last year.” “This year is also an important one as there is Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. I have to do well. (The) Asian Games is the last competition of this year so I will give my best performance in that.” PTI PDS PDS DDV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.