National champ Animesh eager to train with faster runners

Bhubaneswar: Animesh Kujur lit up the National Games winning the gold in 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay for Odisha. What was even more impressive was his timing during the races.He ran a personal best of 20.58 seconds to win the 200m which is just 0.06 seconds short of the national record of 20.52 seconds set by Amlan Borgohain. As for the 100m, he grabbed the gold with a timing of 10.28 seconds and in doing so equalled the Games record that was also set by Borgohain.Despite such a showing, he isn't satisfied and wants to run even faster and become the first Indian to break the 10-second barrier in 100m and the 20-second barrier in 200m. And to do that, he knows he needs to train with faster runners."I have to compete with faster athletes. In India, there aren't many competitors like that. But I have the scope of training abroad and running with athletes who have timings close to 10 seconds, and that way I will be able to gauge where I stand at the moment," said Animesh, who will be going on an exposure trip to Europe before the World University Games to be held in July in the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany.Last year, he embarked on a similar trip to Europe, where he achieved his personal best in the 100m event, clocking 10.27 seconds during a meet in Spain."I also will have to improve my starting and for that, I will have to work on the technicalities with my coach Martin Owens," added the 21-year-old, who trains at the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre (HPC) at Kalinga Stadium here.However, to shave off so much time will not be easy and he believes he will get close to it sometime only before the LA Olympics in 2028."At that time, it will be more possible. Because by that time my body will be at its peak and anyhow, we would have prepared so much to qualify for the Olympics," he said during an exclusive interaction with TOI here.For now, though, his immediate aim is to qualify for the Asian Athletics Championship to be held in May. He did come real close to making the cut for the 200m but fell just short of the 20.53-second mark.He, however, is quite motivated to make it in the coming days and keeping him on his toes are his parents. "I speak to them every night and they will always ask me about how I am doing, what my coaches are saying and keep pushing me to do better," added the 6'2" athlete.Meanwhile, what's truly impressive about Animesh is that he began running seriously only after the pandemic, and before that, he used to be a footballer.But thanks to his parents – both of whom work in the police and motivated him to play sports – and Sainik School Ambikapur, he was always well-built and athletic. And that has played a vital role in setting him on the track of his dreams.