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There is little to write home about India’s performances in ‘Track and Field’ events at international tournaments. However, India came close to winning a medal in the category on two occasions – when Milkha Singh finished an agonising fourth in the 400m event at the Rome Olympics in 1960, and at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, when a bronze medal eluded PT Usha by 1/100th of a second. While Indian track athletes are unlikely to be counted amongst the fastest of all time, their accomplishments shouldn't be forgotten either. As the countdown to the Rio Olympics commences, Indian athletes would do well to peek into the past and take note of the national records that need to be surpassed for the country to assert itself on the global stage. With that in mind, let us now take a look at the five fastest Indians in 100m.
#5 Rajeev Balakrishnan (10.32 seconds)
Before Anil Kumar Prakash burst on to the national scene, Rajeev Balakrishnan was indisputably the fastest Indian. At the height of Balakrishnan’s prowess, Milkha Singh believed that the former would go on to break his 200m record.
Balakrishnan, who was based in the US for the better part of his career, clocked his best time in the 100m dash at Long Beach in the Stanford Invitational completion in 2000. By then, Prakash had already set a new national record.
#4 Rachita Mistry (11.38 seconds)
Rachita Mistry was one of India’s most prominent faces in track and field events a couple of decades ago. In 2000, at the National Circuit Athletic Meet conducted in Thiruvananthapuram, she set the national record for 100m sprint, before it was broken by Joseph 13 years later.
Mistry was at the forefront of the Indian track and field picture in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the Asian Athletic Championships in 1998 held at Fukuoka in Japan, she was a part of the Indian 4X100m relay team that won the Gold. The 44.43 second timing that the team clocked for the Gold remains a National record.
Mistry also went on to win the Gold medal in the 100m individual event at the Asian Athletics Championships conducted in Jakarta in 2000.
#3 Merlin K Joseph (11.35 seconds)
On September 8th 2013, at the 53rd National Athletics Meet conducted in Ranchi, Merlin K Joseph of Trivandrum ran her way into the record books. Racing in the semi-finals of the 100 metre event, Joseph clocked 11.35 seconds, making it 0.03 seconds faster than the previous national record, which belonged to Rachita Mistry and had stood unchallenged for a staggering 13 years.
However, despite rewriting the national record, Joseph failed to win the gold in the final of the national meet, as Dutee Chand and Jyoti consigned her to the third spot.
#2 Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (10.30s) [ +0.2 milliseconds]
Five years after Anil Kumar Prakash set the national record for the 100m sprint, Abdul Najeeb Qureshi went on to emulate the feat at the Commonwealth Games conducted in New Delhi in the year 2010..
Attempting to qualify for the semi-finals of the 100m event, Qureshi equalled Prakash’s record. The feat was rendered even sweeter by the fact that he ended up qualifying for the semifinals.
Despite failing to win a medal in the individual event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Qureshi played a vital role in helping Indian win the bronze in the 4X100m relay event. The team, which also included Rahamatulla Molla, Suresh Satya and Shameer Naseema, also set a national record in the event, clocking 38.89 seconds.
#1 Anil Kumar Prakash (10.30 Seconds)
Anil Kumar Prakash is, without a ghost of a doubt, the ‘fastest Indian’ of all time. Prakash, who hails from the state of Kerala, holds the national record for the 100m sprint. Moreover, Prakash is also the fastest in the 200m event, with a record of 20.73 seconds.
Prakash wrote himself into the record books for the first time in 1999, when he won the silver in the International Circuit Meet at Chennai. Finishing second to Chintaka de Zoysa, Prakash raced to a National Record, finishing the 100m dash in 10.33 seconds.
Six years after he set the benchmark for the Indian sprinters, Prakash reaffirmed that he was India’s fastest athlete when he went on to topple his six-year-old record at the National Circuit Athletic Meet in 2005. Prakash finished the 100m dash in 10.30 seconds and rewrote the national record.
At the Asian Athletics Championships held at Jakarta, Indonesia in the year 2000, Prakash won the silver in the 100m event. While Abdul Najeeb Qureshi went on to equal his record in the 100m event (although was slower by 0.2 milliseconds), Prakash's record in the 200m event remains unbeaten.
