Animesh Kujur advances to 200m semi-finals at Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow; beat 100m champion Eseme in heat

Animesh Kujur emerges from Commonwealth Games 2026 a wiser sprinter

The Indian sprinter beat the newly-crowned Commonwealth Games 100m champion Emmanuel Eseme in the 200m heats before bowing out in the semi-finals.

Animesh Kujur fell short of qualifying for the men’s 200m final at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, but the Indian national record holder believes his maiden CWG campaign has already moulded him into a better sprinter.

The 23-year-old Animesh reached the semi-finals after producing one of the standout performances of the opening round.

He clocked a season-best 20.46 seconds to win his heat ahead of Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme, who went on to win the 100m title at Glasgow 2026 a day earlier.

Animesh Kujur eventually finished sixth in his semi-final heat, clocking 20.65s, missing out on a place in the final. However, the Indian speedster is convinced he leaves Glasgow a better athlete than the one he arrived as.

“I gave my best, as much as I could, in the heats and then in the semi-finals,” Kujur told Olympics.com . “In my opinion, if I had a better lane in the semis, I could have performed even better. From the start, I tried my absolute best to qualify for the final.”

Competing on one of the biggest stages of his career has only fuelled Animesh Kujur’s ambition.

“It felt really great to compete on such a big stage alongside top world-class athletes,” he said. “I hope to keep getting this kind of exposure with big athletes in the future so that I can improve my timing even further.”

Kujur, who holds the Indian national record of 20.32s and only lost the 100m mark to Gurindervir Singh earlier this year, said Glasgow reinforced that success is determined by preparation rather than reputation.

“For me, the main thing is… it’s not about who is the fastest; it’s all about who is the best-prepared athlete on that day,” he said. “This is what I learned, and I’ll apply this in my upcoming competitions as well so that I can perform better.”

The Odisha sprinter has already identified an area he wants to improve before his next major competition.

“I will prepare well, especially in my warm-up,” Kujur said.

“Every time before, I used to be like, ‘Okay, I should have done this at that time, I should have done that at that time.’ But next time I’ll be like, ‘Okay, I did everything, and now the only thing left is to run my race.’”

By Grace Goulding and Ubaid Parkar

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