Glasgow, July 27, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India’s campaign in the men’s 100m event at the 2026 Commonwealth Games suffered a setback on Monday as national record-holder Gurindervir Singh failed to qualify for the semi-finals after finishing outside the required mark in the heats.
Making his Commonwealth Games debut, the 25-year-old Punjab sprinter clocked 10.39 seconds in Heat 4 to finish second behind Jamaica’s Rohan Watson, who won the race with a timing of 10.13 seconds. However, Gurindervir’s overall ranking placed him 28th among 73 competitors, while only the fastest 17 athletes advanced to the next round.
A timing of 10.24 seconds would have been enough to secure qualification, leaving Gurindervir 0.15 seconds short of progression.
Starting from lane five, Gurindervir produced a strong opening phase and stayed alongside Watson in the early stages of the race. The Jamaican sprinter, who has a personal best of 9.91 seconds, pulled away in the final stretch to take the win. The race was conducted with a legal tailwind of 1.9 metres per second.
The result came as a disappointment after Gurindervir entered the Glasgow Games as one of India’s leading sprint medal hopes. In May, he created history at the Federation Cup in Ranchi by becoming the first Indian male sprinter to breach the 10.10-second mark.
He first lowered the national record to 10.17 seconds in the semi-final, surpassing Animesh Kujur’s previous record of 10.18 seconds, before improving it further to 10.09 seconds in the final.
That performance established Gurindervir as India’s fastest-ever man over 100m and raised expectations of a strong showing at the Commonwealth Games. His national record timing would have comfortably taken him into the semi-finals in Glasgow.
However, the sprinter was unable to replicate that form on the biggest stage of his career, ending his Commonwealth Games debut in the heats.
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