Last week, 17-year-old Neil Samraj didn’t celebrate, though he broke the national record twice within an hour at the National Youth Athletics Championships in Ludhiana. He clocked 10.53 seconds in the semifinals to become India’s fastest-ever Under-18 sprinter, then improved the time to 10.46 seconds in the final. But Neil felt he missed an opportunity to lower the record further. Unfortunately, he was under the weather.

“The target was to clock sub-10.40 in the finals. But on the day of the competition, I had a cold. There was an hour’s gap between the semis and the final, so I could not really recover as I was unwell. So, with whatever energy I had left, I could produce 10.46. The final was not up to my expectations. I wanted to go faster,” Coimbatore-based Neil said. A significantly faster national record shows Neil is on the right track, with the previous mark at 10.63.

Becoming a sprinter was written in his stars.

His mother, Selvarasi, a government school teacher, advised Neil to focus on sprinting when he was in Class 9. His physical education teacher also felt he had the potential to excel in the 100 and 200 metres. Neil loves the adrenaline rush of a sprint, so he didn’t think twice once he bought into the idea.

“When I was in school, I was into athletics, football, and basketball. My mother participated in school zonals and district zonals when she was young, but didn’t have support. She felt that I would be good at sprinting. From the beginning, I was focused on the 100 metres and the 200 metres. Compared to other events, sprinting is a showcase event, so I get a different kind of motivation. That is why I love running fast,” Neil said.

He also had inspiration at home as his sister Nedra — two years older than him — is a bronze medallist at the school nationals in the 100 metres. His father, Rathnam, who works in banking, and his mother encouraged both children to take up sports. “Whatever we asked, my parents fully supported it. We are blessed to have parents like this,” Neil said.

Fast track

His coach at Coimbatore’s Unique Sports Academy, Velmurugan Paul Raj, has moulded his career over the past four years. Getting Neil hooked onto sprinting required a pep talk. “In the early days, he would come for training for just two to three days a week and was not fully focused. I told him he was gifted as he was blessed with fast-twitch muscles, which is a big plus point if one wants to be a sprinter. I convinced him he could win medals. After that, his attitude towards training changed,” Paul Raj said. Neil’s inbuilt confidence helps him win the mental battle when on the track, the coach added.

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Neil is also now working with James Hillier, the Athletics Director at Reliance Foundation. A medal at the Youth Olympics in Dakar is Neil’s aim for this year.

“When I graduate to the senior level, I want to ensure my performances are not up and down so I can win medals for India,” Neil, a first-year BA history student at Loyola College, said.

Hillier wants Neil to be consistent at 10.40 seconds as the first step towards getting better. “There is nothing majorly weak about Neil’s sprinting technique. He is generally pretty solid. The first 30 metres is probably the area where he needs to work technically. I have been giving him a bit of advice on how he handles his first three steps and sets the race up. He did actually start really well in the competition (national youth championships), so it seems like that is coming together. It is about improving the consistency of what he does. 10.46 is definitely good for a seventeen-year-old. What he needs to do is get consistent at that time rather than push for 10.3s and 10.2s right now. We want to develop a sprinter who will go from junior to senior and be successful at the highest level. We don’t want to rush the performance,” Hillier said.

A quality of Neil that Hillier likes is his openness to being coached. “We see a lot of talented kids running fast, but it is always the attitude that I am drawn to. He is very ambitious; he wants to learn, which is a great quality that he has got,” Hillier said.

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Neil believes divine intervention and his training regimen will hold him in good stead on the track. “I can work hard till I reach the starting point (blocks). After that, it is the training that I have done and God that will determine how fast I run.”