Gurindervir Singh, India's fastest sprinter, had a sad and premature end to his campaign on the opening day of athletics at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow. The national record holder quit the men's 100m race after failing to secure a place in the semifinals, and the world-class field at Hampden Park had nothing left to prove at the time.
Gurindervir was second in heat 4 with 10.39 seconds, much slower than his overall personal best and national record of 10.09 seconds. Gurindervir was in the heat which was just behind Jamaica’s strong Rohan Watson, but Gurindervir’s timing was too slow to qualify for the top of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers. The 17 athletes from 11 preliminary heats were sent to the next round according to their time, and seven world-class sprinters arrived there because they were in a direct entry. Ghana’s explosive duo Benjamin Azamati (10.00 seconds) and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu (10.01 seconds) were the pace-setters of the morning.
Gurindervir, racing in lane five under weather-challenged conditions and with a legal tailwind of 1.9 m/s, put up a good fight at the beginning of the race. He remained alongside Watson in the explosive opening acceleration phase before the Jamaican pulled away for the last 30 to 35 metres and comfortably won the heat in 10.13 seconds. Gurindervir didn’t automatically move to the next tier, but his presence on the global stage illustrated the rapid progress achieved by Indian sprinting.
Gurindervir came to the quadrennial multi-sport games buoyant after a historic breakthrough domestic season. In the Federation Cup in Ranchi this year, he etched his name in the history books by setting a new national record of 10.09 seconds, and so far he is the first Indian sprinter to achieve the 10.10-second mark. However, with the pressure of Scotland, it was tricky to reproduce that speed, and he finished his sprint in Glasgow 2026 at a single event. As the athletics schedule continues, the Indian team will look forward to the next few games and try to make it stronger on track and field.
