New Delhi: After flirting with Amlan Borgohain’s 200m national record of 20.52s for much of last season, Animesh Kujur finally ran the fastest half lap by an Indian on Thursday, in the process defending his crown at the ongoing National Federation Athletics Championship in Kochi and making the cut for this year’s Asian Championships for which the qualifying mark stood at 20.53s.
Coming into the race as one of the primary challengers to the erstwhile national record of 20.52s — set in the same competition three years back — the 21-year-old Kujur clocked an impressive 20.40s to finish ahead of Borgohain (20.80s) and Ragul Kumar (20.85s). This is also the first time in six attempts that Kujur has beaten Borgohain in a World Athletics-recognised meet.
The race ended up being the fastest 200m dash on Indian soil with four sprinters dipping under 21 seconds. Besides the three medallists, Karnataka’s Manikanta Hoblidhar ran 20.91 seconds to take the fourth spot.
Running in Lane 5, Kujur was steady off the blocks before accelerating at the bend. He opened a decisive lead in the home stretch and led the last 60m to take the title and the record. His now-familiar impersonation of Lightning Bolt duly followed.
“I had a feeling that I would get a good time after the race earlier in the day. I felt like I got a really good push today, especially around the 100m mark. I want to thank my coach, Odisha government and my whole team at Reliance Foundation for always supporting me,” Kujur said after the race.
He fell short of the World Championships qualifying mark of 20.16 seconds but has now trained his sights on the elite event. “My focus is on the World Championships,” he said.
Kujur’s victory doesn’t come as a surprise considering his recent form. He won the gold medal at the Uttarakhand National Games in February with a time of 20.58 seconds. In fact, Kujur had done a golden treble in Dehradun, winning the 100m, 200, and 4X100m relay races with ease. All three results ended up being the Games record — 10.28s in 100m, 20.58s in 200m, and 39.47s in relays — even though he missed the then 100m national record by 0.04s and the 200m mark by 0.06s.
Speaking to HT after the National Games, Kujur had expressed his desire to become the fastest Indian ever. “I don’t chase records. I want to be the fastest Indian ever, that will take care of the records,” he had said.
Kujur followed up that golden campaign with a 200m win at the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Chennai earlier this month where he timed 20.63 seconds.
His coach at the Reliance High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar, Martin Owens, believes Kujur is still a work in progress and has the potential to reach where no Indian has ventured before.
“Animesh is an eight-year project. He wants to go under 10s and 20s, and he is capable, but that won’t happen overnight. It will take a lot of effort from him to get there. I want to see him at the 2032 Olympics, for sure,” Owens had told HT in an earlier interaction.
Kujur’s performances, over the past season, underline his steady progress. He came close to breaking the 200m mark last year as well when he clocked 20.62 seconds to win the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar, which made him the second-fastest Indian of all time behind Borgohain.
He then did 20.65 seconds in the men’s 200m final at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Panchkula before repeating the time at the India Open U-23 Athletics Championships. Kujur also clocked 20.57s at the All India Inter University Athletics Meet last December, but since the competition is not recognised by World Athletics, the mark wasn’t ratified.
Chithravel meets Worlds mark
Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist triple jumper Praveen Chithravel equalled his own national record of 17.37m and qualified for the World Championships to be held in Tokyo this September. The marker was set at 17.22m.
The 23-year-old Chithravel, representing JSW, logged his best jump on his third attempt to take the gold. He had first set the national record in Havana in May 2023.
“My plan was to record a jump of 17.20m plus today,” he said. Abdulla Aboobacker was second with a jump of 16.99m while Mohammed Muhassin was third with a leap of 16.28m.
After a below-par 2024 where he crossed the 17m-mark only once besides finishing 12th in his qualifying round at the Paris Olympics, Chithravel has started the season well. He won gold at the Uttarakhand National Games in February with a modest 16.50m before logging a 17.13m effort at the Indian Open Jumps Competition in Bengaluru in March for a second-place result.
In women’s long jump, Shaili Singh cleared 6.64m to win the gold and break the 23-year-old meet record of 6.59m, set by her mentor Anju Bobby George. Ancy Sojan (6.46m) and Moumita Mondal (6.45m) finished second and third respectively.