Animesh Kujur clocks 10.27s to achieve new PB in Spain, misses national record

Indian sprinter Animesh Kujur came close to breaking men's 100m national record at the Trofeo de Atletismo Ciudad de Salamanca Memorial in Spain on Saturday but fell short by 0.04s.

However, Animesh, the silver medallist at the 27th Federation Cup in May, clocked 10.27s to shave off 0.12s from his previous personal best (10.39s) to achieve a new PB.

In a lightning-quick race, the 20-year-old from Chhattisgarh finished fourth behind Ricardo Perez of Mexico, who clocked 10.18m to win the bronze medal.

Cubans Shainer Reginfo and Reynaldo Espinosa won the gold and silver medals, clocking a sub-10s timing. While Reginfo clocked 9.90s, Espinosa ran the race in 9.96s.

Animesh has been in blazing form of late. His timing in Spain greatly improved from what he achieved at the Federation Cup.

This is the third time, he broke his personal best in less than a month.

Last month, Animesh, a Reliance Foundation-sponsored athlete, clinched the gold medal in 200m and silver in 100m at the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar.

Though he lost the 100m race to Gurindervir Singh, Animesh had posted his personal best of 10.50 seconds at the Federation Cup. He broke the PB at Motonet GP Jyvaskyla athletics, clocking 10.39s, and came second on May 22.

His latest performance in Spain will further boost his confidence.

However, the Paris Olympics qualifying mark (10.00s) in men's 100m continues to elude Animesh.

The qualifying window for the Olympic Games will close by the end of this month. Animesh will get many more opportunities to achieve the mark before the curtain falls on the qualifying window.

The 63rd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships, to be held at Panchkula from June 27-30, will be the final chance to secure Paris quota places for Indian athletes.