NEW DELHI: India’s fastest man Gurindervir Singh entered the Commonwealth Games carrying the weight of expectation after rewriting the national record earlier this year. Instead, his campaign came to an abrupt end in the men’s 100m heats, with a hamstring injury emerging as the key reason behind his disappointing outing.The 25-year-old clocked 10.39 seconds to finish second in his heat, but the time was not enough to secure a place in the semifinals. Only the 17 fastest athletes across all 11 heats progressed, leaving Gurindervir 28th overall among 73 competitors. A time of 10.24 seconds would have been enough to advance.After the race, coach James Hillier revealed that the Indian sprinter had been battling a hamstring injury for the past month, something the team had deliberately kept under wraps.“Everyone will look at the timings and go why couldn’t he do his best. He’s had a hamstring injury for the last month, we’ve been keeping it quiet. Where he is at now, he can do the first 60m very well,” Hillier said, as quoted by Nnis Sports.The injury explained the contrast between Gurindervir’s recent form and his performance in Glasgow. In May, he became the first Indian man to break the 10.10-second barrier, clocking a national record 10.09 seconds at the Federation Cup in Ranchi. The run erased the previous mark of 10.15 seconds, set by Animesh Kujur just a day earlier, and established Gurindervir as one of India’s brightest medal hopes heading into the Games.His early exit, however, dealt a setback to India’s sprint ambitions.
