Sprinter Animesh Kujur has confirmed his berth for the World Championships with a gold medal in the men’s 200m at the ongoing National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai on Saturday. The 22- year-old from Chhattisgarh clocked 20.63s to improve his ranking further in the Road to Tokyo rankings and is on course of becoming the first-ever Indian male sprinter to feature in the bi-annual World Athletics Championships start from 13th September in Tokyo.
Animesh has breached both 100m and 200m national records this season along with winning a bronze medal at the Asian Athletics Championships and running in the U23 200m event at Monaco Diamond League.
Reflecting on the season, his coach Martin Owens said, “I am very happy with the long season. We didn’t expect to break the national record so early in the season. With his win he has consolidated his place further for the World Championships and it is a fantastic achievement.”
Animesh’s season started early in February with him participating in the National Games in Uttarakhand. After National Games, he featured in the Federation Cup at the Kochi breaking the 200m national record. At the Asian Athletics in Korea, he bettered the 200m NR to 20.32 seconds. In between, he was part of the quartet ( Gurindervir Singh, Manikanta and Amlan Borgohain) that broke the 4x100m relay national record with 38.69s.
After that he went on the European sojourn where he broke the 100m national record in Dormia clocking 10.18s and participated in u23 race at Monaco Diamond League before returning to India for World Athletics Continental Tour bronze meet in Odisha and Inter-State.
No pressure at Worlds
As Animesh will sit on the flight to Tokyo, it will be a red-letter day for sprinting in India as he will become the first-ever Indian male sprinter to race at the event but coach Owens is having no expectations at the moment.
“It has been a successful season for him. He broke individual national records and was part of the relay team also. So, I see going to Tokyo as a bonus,” Owens told the media after his gold medal in Chennai. “There is no expectation on him to perform there. He is going just for the experience, to get a feel on how it is to race at the World Championships and rub shoulders with the greats of the game. When he goes next time, then there should be expectations,” he added further.
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When asked what is the plan before the World Championships, Owens said, “Right now, the plan is to get some rest and probably one week camp before the Worlds. We had a good training in Switzerland where we worked on strength and conditioning, so the idea is to keep him fresh when we land in Tokyo.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
