Who is Amlan Borgohain - Cristiano Ronaldo fan is India’s fastest man

Amlan Borgohain talks with a distinctive stammer, but on the track, there’s no Indian stopping this 24-year-old.

After all, Amlan Borgohain is one of the fastest Indian sprinter to date, with the men’s 200m national record under his belt. He also held the 100m record before Manikanta Hoblidhar bettered it by 0.02 seconds at the National Open Athletics Championships 2023.

“I stammer a lot. I have been like this since childhood. Then everyone would tell me ‘jaldi bol, jaldi bol’ (talk fast). Now, I run very fast and tell them ‘jaldi chal, jaldi chal’ (come fast)!” Amlan Borgohain told the Tribune.

Though Amlan jokes about it now, the speech impairment often subjected him to incessant bullying as a child. In one particular instance, it came from a teacher.

“It happened when I was just 11 years old when my school teacher called me a 'loser' and 'good for nothing' in front of my father and the entire class. He told my father 'your son won't be able to do anything in his life,” Amlan Borgohain recalled during an interview with the Times of India.

The ugly jibe, Amlan Borgohain admits, has fuelled his short yet eventful career so far.

“Is it a crime to be born differently from others? People always want to suppress the weak, it's human nature. I can't forget those words spoken to by my teacher. They resonate in my mind every time I race,” the sprinter said.

Where is Amlan Borgohain from?

Amlan Borgohain was born in Assam’s Jorhat on April 25, 1998. His father BC Borgohain was in the Indian Army and after retirement in 2009, took up a job and moved to Hyderabad. The Borgohain family, Amlan with mother Geetanjali and elder brother Pradyuman, moved to Hyderabad in 2014.

Growing up, Amlan Borgohain’s first love was football - a sport his father and brother also used to play - and he even represented his school team at the national level. However, recurring injuries continuously impeded his football career.

Amlan Borgohain, however, remains a huge football fan and idolises Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo and Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri.

Encouraged by his mother and brother, he made the hard decision to leave football when he was in the 12th standard and started to look into athletics. Amlan Borgohain’s height – 6’4” now – and the natural pace he exhibited as a footballer made sprinting a natural choice.

In fact, Pradyuman was convinced that Amlan could one day beat the 100m national record held at the time by Abdul Najeeb Qureshi, incidentally a neighbour of the Borgohains in Hyderabad.

Pardyuman, over the years, played a big part in shaping his younger brother’s career. He even left his management job to take care of their ailing mother so that Amlan could focus on his athletics career.

Later, it was with oversized boots Pradyuman arranged from his friend that Amlan Borgohain ran his first-ever 100m race in a junior district meet and beat the state champion to win gold. Several other small successes followed, which gave Amlan Borgohain the confidence to take up the sport full-time.

Amlan Borgohain medals and records

In 2015, he formally started to train under coach Sai Reddy at the Saroornagar Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad.

Amlan Borgohain began competing at national meets from 2017-18 and despite no medals of note, it didn’t take long for people to notice his raw talent. James Hillier, the chief coach at Athletics High-Performance Centre at Bhubaneswar, was among the admirers.

“I just knew there was something special about him. I have been doing this for a long time. His timings were not great but I knew he had potential. I decided to take the gamble,” James Hillier told the Indian Express.

Hillier’s punt paid off and gave India their latest athletics sensation.

Amlan Borgohain moved to Bhubaneswar to train with Hillier in 2020 and after a COVID-curtailed season which gave him the opportunity to work on his basics, stormed into 2021 an athlete reborn.

Borgaohain’s first major national-level medals came at the National Open Championships in Warangal in September 2021. Amlan Borgohain won gold medals in the 100m and 200m with timings of 20.75s and 10.34s, respectively.

The Assamese sprinter carried his form into the following year and on April 6, 2022, he took possession of his first-ever national record. Amlan Borgohain clocked 20.52 seconds to win the men's 200m gold at the Federation Cup in Thenhipalam, Kerala and shattered Muhammed Anas Yahiya's previous record of 20.63 set in 2018.

In May, Borgohain produced some impressive performances abroad, winning medals at athletics meets held in England, Cyprus and the Netherlands.

In the following month, Amlan Borgohain won gold medals in both the 100m and 200m events at the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai.

Amlan Borgohain pocketed the then men’s 100m national record at the All India Inter-Railway Athletics Championships in Raebareli on August 29. His timing of 10.25s for gold was 0.1s faster than Amiya Kumar Mallick’s previous record of 10.26s, set in 2016.

The sprinter wrapped up an eventful 2022 season with a double gold at the National Games 2022 in Gujarat, clocking 10.38s in the 100m and a meet record of 20.55s in the men’s 200m.

A year later, Amlan Borgohain would clock the exact same timing to win the men's 200m bronze medal at the FISU World University Games 2023 in Chengdu in what perhaps is his biggest accomplishment to date on the international stage. He competed at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou but could only finish sixth.

Amlan Borgohain is also a huge anime fan, especially of the popular Dragon Ball series and notes that Goku, the protagonist, has served as a huge inspiration for him since childhood.

“In the series, Goku is someone who keeps improving himself when he fights until he finally achieves Ultra (ultimate power). I have to be like Goku. So I have to step out on the field and be a brave guy,” he told ESPN.

Amlan Borgohain is one of the biggest prospects in Indian athletics and observers will be closely following the sprinter’s progress in the coming years.

Amlan Borgohain achievements and personal best

• Personal best in men's 100m - 10.25s (second-fastest time ever recorded by an Indian runner)

• National record in men’s 200m - 20.52 (personal best)

• Two-time national champion in both 100m and 200m

• Won National Games 2022 gold medals in 100m and 200m

• Won men's 200m bronze medal at FISU World University Games 2023 in Chengdu