How Aditya Pisal scripted dream finish to overcome sprinters’ nightmare at KIYG 2025

Khel Today Bureau

Patna: It was the redemption that Aditya Pisal was seeking. He was visualising a gold medal finish in the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 Bihar as a counter measure of the fear of an early start induced disqualification that lurked deep within him since March 10. On Tuesday night, the 16-year-old exorcised in a dream time of 10.62 seconds.

“I trained with the goal of winning the Khleo India Youth Games 100m gold. I had to recalibrate after being disqualified for an early start when I competed on this track a couple of months ago. I was in better form then and heartbroken,” Pisal told SAI Media, wistfully recalling the disqualification, which is every sprinter’s worst nightmare.

A moment can haunt an athlete beyond one competition. “When I lined up at the start of the 100m final on Tuesday, I had to overcome my fears about making another false start in the first event after the disqualification in the AFI National Youth Championships,” he said.

“March 10 was a black day for me,” Pisal said, replaying the unhappy sequence of events in his mind. Though I won 200m bronze a couple of days later, the early start in the 100m hurt for a long time. My coach and I were extremely disappointed with that disqualification, but I had to overcome that bitter, but learning, experience.”

Aditya Pisal very nearly had to settle for a lesser medal after a sluggish start but overtook the leader and his main competitor, Bihar’s Prince Kumar about five metres from the beam. “That I got the meet record here makes me doubly happy and, more importantly, relieved,” Pisal said, happy that he could contribute to Maharashtra’s win with a fast run on the curve in the boys’ 4x100m relay.

Son of a home maker mother and Public Works Department Head Clerk, Pisal trains with coach Shrinivas Gupta, a World Athletics Level 2 certified coach, at the Father Agnel Gymkhana in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. He chose athletics over football in which he represented Maharashtra in the national sub-junior championships, but said it was a natural decision.

“I always loved running fast. When a teacher saw me run on the Football pitch, he suggested that I try my hand with athletics. I liked it when I attempted sprinting and knew that this is what I wanted to do – run as fast as I can and faster than everyone else. I also how Usain Bolt and other sprinters were respected. I wanted to create my own identity as a sprinter,” he said.

Aditya Pisal is aware that sprinting is less followed in India compared to other track events like 400m in which the relay teams have enjoyed the spotlight and the middle- and long-distance races. “I want to change that. I want to compete for India at the world stage and I also want to run sub-10-second races, 9.9 and 9.8,” Pisal said, indicating that he would not shift to the longer races.