From the time Gurindervir Singh clocked 10.09 seconds (the first Indian to achieve a sub-10.10-second timing) at the Federation Cup in May this year, expectations were high from the 25-year-old.
However, at the Commonwealth Games 2026, Gurindervir failed to live up to expectations, crashing out of the men’s 100m event in Round 1 with a timing of 10.39 seconds. He was 28th overall in the heats. After the race, just like him, his first coach Happy Singh was heartbroken. “I just want to ask forgiveness as Gurindervir’s first coach as we were not able to give what was expected from us,” he told
“The country hopes that when an athlete runs for the country, they will do well. I apologise to the nation as Gurindervir’s first coach. He could not deliver close to what the people had hoped from him.”
“Either a person wins or learns, but that process of learning becomes too drawn out if the competition comes once in four years. If a person goes to these events only to learn, they take on a lot of pressure. But what is done is done; we cannot do anything about it. All we can do now is support him.”
Coming into Glasgow with ambitions of becoming the first Indian to break the 10-second barrier, the 25-year-old’s effort was far from his best.
Running in Heat 4 from lane five, the Punjab sprinter made a decent start and stayed close to Jamaica’s Rohan Watson before fading out in the final 30-35 metres.
Watson powered away to win the heat in 10.13 seconds, with Gurindervir finishing second. Watson was ninth overall and made the semifinals on Tuesday.
Surprisingly, Gurindervir seemed to ease up towards the finish line and even gave a thumbs up later on as if he had qualified for the semifinals. Why he chose to take it easy towards the end of his race is not known.
The semifinal spots were not to be decided by the positions of the runners in their respective heats but through their timings. There were 11 heat races in all, and the top 17 qualified for the semifinals, where another seven runners, who received byes, will join them.
Gurindervir’s 10.39-second effort was far from his best of 10.09 seconds, a national record that he set at the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May, when he became the first Indian to run under 10.10 seconds.
The Ghanaian duo of Benjamin Azamati and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu took the top two qualifying spots with times of 10.00 seconds and 10.01 seconds, respectively.