India’s fastest sprinter Animesh Kujur will be a part of the Monaco Diamond League 200m U23 lineup and will possibly go up against 17-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout, who has been touted as the next big thing in the world of athletics. Officials released the start list for the meet, which will take place on Friday, July 11.
In Kujur’s young career, the Monaco DL will easily be the biggest stage he has been a part of, and the chance to rub shoulders against who many consider to be a future great, gives the Indian an opportunity to truly push himself.
In India, Kujur rarely faces resistance at the 200m sprint. His coach Martin Owens had earlier told this paper that Kujur’s times would get better when he faced a better line of sprinters.
“If you can easily beat the people you’re running with, you never push yourself hard,” Owens said. “He’s going to get faster because he’ll race faster people.”
The 22-year-old broke the 100m national record a few days back, becoming the first Indian to take the dip below 10.20 seconds. His time of 10.18s came at the Dromia International Sprint and Relays Meeting in Greece and the dip in time was credited by Owens to a stint at the Swiss Olympics Centre where Kujur worked on his strides at the start of his race.
The sprinter from Chhatisgarh, who stands over six foot tall, usually has a slow start but a killer kick when he’s a part of the 200m event. But that slow start is also being worked on, with a retooling of the technique of Kujur’s first two strides.
“The initial strides set him up for a better race. The first couple of strides aren’t always as fast as they can be but they are better mechanically for setting him up for the race. So, we have worked on those first two strides,” Owens said to this newspaper.
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Those improvements and a significant step up in competition comes for Kujur in Monaco, where he goes up against a sprinter who has made the world look up.
Still not out of his teenage years, Gout Gout already holds the 200m Australian National record. He has already dipped under the U16 time of Usain Bolt – feats that made the Jamaican himself remark that the sprinter of South Sudanese heritage “looks like a young me”.
Training camps with Olympics and World champion Noah Lyles, major sponsors clamouring over him and advice from Michael Johnson and Paris Olympics 200m gold medallist Letsile Tebogo have followed the sprinter as he prepares for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Both Johnson and Tebogo have said that the Australian needs to stay at the juniors level and continue his development instead of focusing on the noise and hype that has become happenstance.
The comparisons to Bolt though, have continued, even though Gout has said that he wants to be known for his name.
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“I do see it (comparison with Bolt). My stride length is pretty long, my knee height is pretty high and just the amount of tallness I get when I’m running. I’m just me trying to be me. Obviously, I do run like him (Bolt). I do sometimes look like him, but obviously I’m making a name for myself, and I think I’ve done that pretty well. I just want to continue doing that and continue to be not only Usain Bolt but continue to be Gout Gout,” he had told the Sydney Morning Herald.
On Friday, the athletics world will mark the Monaco DL as a race to watch and for how Gout Gout performs on European shores. But for Animesh Kujur, the U23 200m is a chance to once again rewrite his national record, while chasing the Australian, who is himself setting up for a different stratosphere of greatness.
