Indian athletics witnessed a historic evening at the National Senior Federation meet on Saturday as Gurvinder Vir Singh broke the men’s 100m national record with a sensational 10.09 seconds, while Vishal TK became the first Indian to clock sub-45 seconds in the 400m. On another action-packed day, Tejsun Shankar rewrote history by becoming the first Indian to breach the 8000-point mark in decathlon. Representing the Reliance Foundation, Gurvinder Vir produced the highlight of the meet in the men’s 100m final. The sprinter from Punjab crossed the finish line in 10.09 seconds, making him the first Indian athlete to break the 10.10 second barrier. His effort is now the second-fastest time recorded by an Asian this season, behind only Japanese sprinter Fukuto Komuro’s 10.08 seconds earlier this year. The 100m race turned into a dramatic contest between Gurvinder Veer and Animesh Kajoor over two days. Gurvinder Veer had first lowered the national record to 10.17 seconds in Friday’s semi-final, only for Animesh to regain it minutes later with an effort of 10.15 seconds. However, Gurvinder Vir had an even faster run in the final on Saturday, comfortably edging out Animesh to claim the historic national record. The time also comfortably breached the Athletics Federation of India’s Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 10.16 seconds. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s Vishal produced another historic performance in the men’s 400m final. The 22-year-old clocked 44.98 seconds to become the first Indian to complete the one-lap race in under 45 seconds. Vishal had already grabbed attention after breaking the national record with a run of 45.12 seconds in Chennai last year, but he raised the bar further on Saturday with a performance that now tops the Asia seasonal rankings. His timing beat Ammar Ismail Ibrahim’s previous Asian-leading mark of 45.16 seconds and also helped him surpass the AFI’s 2026 Commonwealth Games standard of 44.96 seconds. Fellow runner Rajesh Ramesh of Tamil Nadu finished second in 45.31 seconds, while Jayakumar of Uttar Pradesh finished third with a time of 45.47 seconds. The historic day did not end there. Asian Games Silver medalist Tejsun Shankar added another milestone to Indian athletics by becoming the country’s first athlete to cross the 8000-point barrier in decathlon. Competing for Reliance Foundation, Tejson collected 8057 points in the 10-event discipline, surpassing his previous national record of 7947 points set last year. This tally moved him to seventh on the all-time Asian list in decathlon.
