CWG: Gurindervir finished 2nd in heats. Why did he drop out of the men’s 100m sprint?
India’s fastest man Gurindervir Singh finished second in his men’s 100m heat at the Commonwealth Games on Monday. Yet instead of progressing to the semi-finals, the Indian sprinter’s campaign ended prematurely in Glasgow.
It was not a case of Gurindervir finishing out of the automatic qualifying places. The 25-year-old crossed the line behind Jamaica’s Rohan Watson in Heat 4, but his time of 10.39 seconds was simply not enough to make it through to the next round. Gurindervir Singh finished second in the men’s 100m heats. (Screengrab: Sony)
So how did India’s fastest man finish second and still be eliminated? The answer lies in the unusual qualifying format used in the men’s 100m in Glasgow.
WHY DID GURINDERVIR NOT QUALIFY?
A total of 76 athletes were to start in the men’s 100 m, the sprinters were divided into 11 heats. With such a large field, the organizers did not send only the top two or three from each heat to the semi-finals. Instead, the qualifying system was based on a combination of finish and times.
Seven athletes have already reached the semi-finals, leaving 17 places to fill from the heats.
This meant second place was not enough for Gurindervir. He needed to record one of the 17 fastest times among athletes competing in the opening round.
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Unfortunately for the Indian, his 10.39 second run left him well short of that mark.
Gurindervir ended up finishing 28th overall among the athletes competing in the heats, with Kuron Griffith of Barbados taking the final qualifying spot in 10.24 seconds.
His Heat 4 winner, Jamaican Rohan Watson, had no such concerns. Watson cruised to victory in 10.13 seconds to finish ninth overall, comfortably securing a place in the semi-finals.
GURINDERVIR NO BETTER
The biggest disappointment for Gurindervir wasn’t necessarily the format, but the timing itself. The Indian sprinter arrived in Glasgow as the country’s fastest man and with genuine hopes of fighting for a place in the later stages of the competition.
Just a few months ago, Gurindervir rewrote the Indian record books.
He clocked 10.09 seconds at the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May, becoming the first Indian to run under 10.10 seconds in the men’s 100. It was a stunning run that put him within touching distance of the elusive 10-second barrier. Gurindervir Singh broke the national record in May 2026. (Photo: PTI)
He therefore entered the Commonwealth Games with ambitions of becoming the first Indian to break 10 seconds.
But 10.39 in Glasgow was more than three-tenths of a second slower than his national record.
Gurindervir made a decent start from lane 5 in heat 4 and stayed close to Watson in the early stages. But the Jamaican started to pull away in the last 30-35 meters and Gurindervir eventually gassed up.
COLD AND RAINY IN GLASGOW
The conditions did not make life very easy. Gurindervir’s national record came under very different circumstances.
10.09 took place in the sweltering heat of Ranchi, while Glasgow offered a much cooler and wetter environment. Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Celsius, with rain adding further difficulty for the sprinters. Rain interrupted the rhythm of the athletes in Glasgow. (Screengrab: Sony)
This does not detract from Gurindervir’s performance, especially considering that the race was run at a legal speed of 1.5 m/s.
But the conditions were decidedly a stark contrast to those in which he produced the best drive of his career.
While Gurindervir struggled to break 10.40, Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu topped the qualifying order with extraordinary runs of 10.00 and 10.01 seconds respectively.
The final qualifying spot went to Griffith in 10:24. Gurindervir’s 10.39 just couldn’t compete with those numbers.
– The end
Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
27 Jul 2026 16:44 IST