New Delhi: The coveted sub-10-second dash in the 100m has been a pipedream for Indian athletes for decades, but a sudden ray of hope has emerged. This resurgence has been reinforced by Gurindervir Singh's record-breaking run at the Federation Cup National Championships in Ranchi.The 25-year-old Gurindervir lowered Animesh Kujur's national record to 10.09 seconds in a sensational race at the Birsa Munda Stadium on Saturday.Gurindervir first broke 22-year-old Animesh's national record of 10.18 seconds by clocking 10.17 seconds during the first semifinals heat on Friday but his arch-rival from Odisha regained it five minutes later with a run of 10.15 seconds in the second semifinals heat.The Punjab athlete, who is now under Reliance Foundation, had the last laugh on Saturday, beating Animesh by 0.11 seconds and in the process becoming the first Indian to run 100m below 10.10 seconds.His marvellous run has raised hopes of an Indian running sub-10 seconds in the near future.Gurindervir himself said after the race on Saturday that "I'm not finished and still have power in my legs."Also Read | 'Fastest man in India": Indian Navy hails Gurindervir Singh for his win at Federation CupA former 100m runner himself and current World Athletics vice-president, Adille Sumariwalla, said it is "absolutely possible" for an Indian sprinter to run sub-10 seconds in the next two or three years."Of course we can. Tracks, spikes, training, coaches will make it possible. The new shoes are fantastic, the new tracks are very fast. Scientific training will all make it possible," Sumariwalla, a former president of Athletics Federation of India, told PTI on Sunday."It's absolutely possible. When we all work together we get results. That was one of the reasons to decentralise the national camps," he said, referring to the AFI winding up national camps except for relay teams.The athletes are now trained under coaches at private entities like Reliance Foundation.For the record, 220 athletes in the world have run 100m in sub-10 seconds, since American sprinter Jim Hines broke the barrier, clocking 9.95 seconds at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.In Asia, only 11 runners have clocked sub-10 seconds in 100m, since Samuel Francis of Qatar did it in 2007 with a time of 9.99 seconds. The current best time in Asia is the 9.83 seconds in the name of China's Su Bingtian. Hillier hoping for higher-profile international races to hasten to 10-second feat Reliance Foundation's Athletics Director James Hillier has no doubt in mind that Gurindervir can run sub-10 seconds in the next few years but cautioned that it's not something they can rush into."Obviously, sub-10 is a huge benchmark and something we've sort of all been looking at and talking about. It's most certainly possible," he said."But, it's a process that is a bit of a slow burner really, it's not something you can rush into. He (Gurindervir) has now made a breakthrough, we can't expect him to make another big jump straight away. We have to consolidate that, so we'll be looking at trying to bring his average time down based on what he did last year and the year before."So we try and get him consistent around his old personal best so if he can consistently run sort of 10.1s or low 10.2s and then in the competitions where we want to peak him, we can look at obviously delivering something a little bit quicker."Hillier said he is expecting invitations for Gurindervir to more high-profile international races. Gurindervir has not run in very few top-level global competitions like Diamond League Meetings."When you run fast you get him invitations to better races as well, better competitions, so it's sort of hopefully this time (10.09 seconds) will open up a few doors for him in terms of some good overseas competitions and hopefully he can get some good opportunities to run fast. We'll keep working hard and fingers crossed we can break that magical 10-second barrier soon." Commonwealth Games and Asian Games targets If Gurindervir is able to maintain his Ranchi timing, he can win medals in both the CWG and Asian Games after a long time for an Indian. No Indian has ever won a medal in the men's 100m individual race in the Commonwealth Games.In the Asian Games, the last time an Indian had won a medal in men's 100m dash is in the 1978 edition when Ramaswamy Gnanasekaran bagged a silver with a time of 10.60 seconds."I had trained him to peak at this competition, so that was the plan. We'll try and hold that peak for a little bit but you can't hold the peak for too long because we have to get ready for Inter-State Championships (in June), Commonwealth Games and Asian Games."We now have to probably just sit just and decide at which competition we need to target next and then we need to have a little bit of a rebuild in training, a little bit of rest as well because physically and mentally this will have taken a bit of a toll. Then get into some good hard training, probably pick up Inter-State Championships next."Regarding the Glasgow Commonwealth Games for which Gurindervir has breached the qualifying mark set by the AFI, Hillier said, "Hopefully the conditions (in Glasgow) will be good and he can run really fast there and be competitive internationally which will give him a huge amount of confidence moving forward."