How late-night shifts and village grounds built India’s fastest sprinter
Gurindervir Singh’s father, Kamaljit, recalls the early struggles of India’s fastest man
With his fellow teammates and players becoming DSPs while also representing India during their careers, Kamaljit Singh, a constable with the Punjab Police, had only one dream — to make his youngest son a sprinter.
After Singh Sr suffered a career-ending wrist injury, the Punjab Police employee began taking a young Gurindervir to the ground in Patial village near Jalandhar before enrolling him under coach and former CRPF athlete Swaran Singh in the nearby village of Dalla. As his 25-year-old son created a new national record, with a timing of 10.09 seconds in the 100m race at the Federation Cup to become India’s fastest man, Kamaljit and his wife visited the gurdwara in their village.
“When I first took Gurindervir to the ground, he was very quick during the laps, and that is when I took him to coach Swaran Singh. Around that time, I would also tell him about Usain Bolt winning his first Olympic gold in 2008, and Gurindervir would say, I will also run fast. To see him create a new national record and become India’s fastest man is the reward for all the hard work,” Kamaljit told The Indian Express.
With Gurindervir initially training under coach Swaran Singh, his father soon realised that his son needed to move to nearby Jalandhar for better facilities. After six years, the Punjab Police constable decided to send Gurindervir to PIS Jalandhar to train under coach Sarabjeet Singh Happy. At the time, Singh Sr was posted in Bhogpur and worked night shifts, which meant travelling to Jalandhar during the day.
“I knew that Gurindervir had to leave the village. I would finish my night duty at the Bhogpur police station, prepare food for him — including chicken and salads — and carry the tiffin to Jalandhar every day for more than six years. When he broke the U20 national record during his youth career, there were also years when he suffered from an upset stomach. We consulted doctors across Punjab, but there was no cure. He would feel dejected because his body was failing him. Then he saw a video about stomach worms, and a Rs 10 medicine from a local chemist cured him. That phase made him mentally stronger, too,” the father recalled.
Moving to Jalandhar also allowed Gurindervir to train at the athletics track at PIS. Coach Sarabjeet Singh Happy still remembers the first day he met the sprinter.
“His legs were very strong, and his short sprinting ability stood out immediately. Back then, many athletes used to say that Punjabis could not run the 100m. Gurindervir would respond by saying he would prove them wrong. We stopped his weight training and focused instead on explosiveness through regular bounding, hopping, and stretching drills. Soon, he was clocking 11 to 11.10 seconds,” the coach recalled.
In 2017, Singh won the title at the Asian U18 Championships in Thailand with a time of 10.69 seconds. The Punjab sprinter then dipped below 10.50 seconds with a 10.47-second run at the U20 Nationals in Coimbatore the following year, before recording his personal best of 10.27 seconds in 2021. However, for the next three years, the sprinter was unable to go below 10.30 seconds. Happy spoke about the difficult period in Singh’s career.
“We often faced problems during training. During the COVID years, we trained in parks and sometimes rented a hotel in Patiala for a couple of days just so we could train properly. The stomach issues, along with tonsil problems, occupied much of his mind, but he remained very resilient through that phase,” Happy said.
With his fellow teammates and players becoming DSPs while also representing India during their careers, Kamaljit Singh, a constable with the Punjab Police, had only one dream — to make his youngest son a sprinter.
After Singh Sr suffered a career-ending wrist injury, the Punjab Police employee began taking a young Gurindervir to the ground in Patial village near Jalandhar before enrolling him under coach and former CRPF athlete Swaran Singh in the nearby village of Dalla. As his 25-year-old son created a new national record, with a timing of 10.09 seconds in the 100m race at the Federation Cup to become India’s fastest man, Kamaljit and his wife visited the gurdwara in their village.
“When I first took Gurindervir to the ground, he was very quick during the laps, and that is when I took him to coach Swaran Singh. Around that time, I would also tell him about Usain Bolt winning his first Olympic gold in 2008, and Gurindervir would say, I will also run fast. To see him create a new national record and become India’s fastest man is the reward for all the hard work,” Kamaljit told The Indian Express.
With Gurindervir initially training under coach Swaran Singh, his father soon realised that his son needed to move to nearby Jalandhar for better facilities. After six years, the Punjab Police constable decided to send Gurindervir to PIS Jalandhar to train under coach Sarabjeet Singh Happy. At the time, Singh Sr was posted in Bhogpur and worked night shifts, which meant travelling to Jalandhar during the day.
“I knew that Gurindervir had to leave the village. I would finish my night duty at the Bhogpur police station, prepare food for him — including chicken and salads — and carry the tiffin to Jalandhar every day for more than six years. When he broke the U20 national record during his youth career, there were also years when he suffered from an upset stomach. We consulted doctors across Punjab, but there was no cure. He would feel dejected because his body was failing him. Then he saw a video about stomach worms, and a Rs 10 medicine from a local chemist cured him. That phase made him mentally stronger, too,” the father recalled.
Moving to Jalandhar also allowed Gurindervir to train at the athletics track at PIS. Coach Sarabjeet Singh Happy still remembers the first day he met the sprinter.
“His legs were very strong, and his short sprinting ability stood out immediately. Back then, many athletes used to say that Punjabis could not run the 100m. Gurindervir would respond by saying he would prove them wrong. We stopped his weight training and focused instead on explosiveness through regular bounding, hopping, and stretching drills. Soon, he was clocking 11 to 11.10 seconds,” the coach recalled.
In 2017, Singh won the title at the Asian U18 Championships in Thailand with a time of 10.69 seconds. The Punjab sprinter then dipped below 10.50 seconds with a 10.47-second run at the U20 Nationals in Coimbatore the following year, before recording his personal best of 10.27 seconds in 2021. However, for the next three years, the sprinter was unable to go below 10.30 seconds. Happy spoke about the difficult period in Singh’s career.
“We often faced problems during training. During the COVID years, we trained in parks and sometimes rented a hotel in Patiala for a couple of days just so we could train properly. The stomach issues, along with tonsil problems, occupied much of his mind, but he remained very resilient through that phase,” Happy said.
