Vishal ‘Bolt’ — The boy with bow knees who became India’s fastest quartermiler

When he blazed to a 44.98-second finish to win the 400m gold at the Federation Cup in Ranchi on Saturday, TK Vishal re-emphasized a point that track and field observers in India have known for a couple of years now.

While Vishal had already held the national record heading into the Federation Cup, the 45-second barrier is one of the marquee landmarks of track and field and in breaching that mark, the 23-year-old firmly established himself as a generational talent in the Indian quarter milling tradition.

But Vishal wasn’t always so fast on his feet. As a child growing up in the town of Jolarpettai in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupattur district, there was once nothing to suggest that Vishal would grow up to be one of India’s top athletes.

“As a six-year-old, Vishal was a very fussy eater. He was very weak and his knees bowed into each other when he walked. The doctors called it “knock knees,” his father Thennarasu recalls.

The doctors suggested a diet regimen to treat the condition, but Thennarasu had a friend who suggested a unique form of physical therapy that, unknown to him, would start the boy on a history-making journey.

“At that time, I used to play football in the evenings at the Jolarpettai mini stadium. When I told one of the coaches there named John about my son’s condition, he suggested physical therapy. He would take Vishal to the long jump pit, and bury him up to his knees in the sand. He’d leave him like that for two hours and then make him run around the ground,” Thennarasu adds.

Although unusual, this ‘therapy’ was effective.

“His knees slowly started getting better. It took nearly six months for his condition to go away. But he didn’t stop after that. He started coming to the ground to practise his running!”

The boy who could barely walk was soon the fastest of all the kids running in the Jolarpettai mini stadium.

“They would call him Vishal Bolt!” Thennarasu exclaims.

As Vishal dug deeper into the world of running, this became a nickname he relished.

Vishal ‘Bolt’

Vishal was in class four when he brought the sprinting legend home to grace his wall.

“At that time, my dad had a banner printing business. I went to him and said ‘A ppa can you print me a poster of Usain Bolt?’ He printed a very large one and I put it up on the walls of my room. Every time I got up, I saw that poster. I’d make that Bolt pose and I’d dream that I would one day be on a poster myself” Vishal tells Sportstar.

Thennarasu encouraged his son’s passion. “I wanted him to become an athlete or any sportsperson because my own father didn’t encourage me. He was a good student but I didn’t really care so much,” he says.

“I wanted him to become an athlete or any sportsperson because my own father didn’t encourage me. He was a good student but I didn’t really care so much,” he says.

A few years later, Vishal’s father found out that selection trials were being held to select prospective students for the Tamil Nadu State Sports Hostel in Chennai. Thennarasu says at least 700 athletes had shown up. Vishal was among those who got through.

Vishal still remembers what his father told him before he left home to call a big new metropolis 200 kilometres away his home.

“My dad told me that I would go on to raise the flag for India. I knew what the Olympics were but I didn’t know anything else or even what it would take to become an Indian athlete,” he says.

Vishal’s early days in the hostel were hard. A new environment away from home didn’t always suit him.

“For me, everything was new. Life was just a routine. It was study, train, study and train. I was very young when I went there and I realised soon enough that I wasn’t suddenly going to become this great athlete,” he says.

Results didn’t always go his way.

“I was just a kid. I only knew about winning or losing. If I didn’t win, I’d just feel bad. I didn’t get that there’s something more important than winning and that’s improving. I don’t think I was a special athlete then,” he adds.

Vishal says his perspective changed when he returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“I just sat at home thinking what I was doing with my life. I wasn’t very motivated. But my family was so encouraging. It made me a little ashamed. I was getting so much support from them but I wasn’t giving anything back. I told myself when this pandemic eventually got over, I would push myself like never before. I focussed seriously on my sprinting,” he remembers.

The results soon caught up with his efforts. In 2022, he won gold in the 200m at the Junior Federation Cup.

“That motivated me even more,” he says.

Breakthrough moment

His real breakthrough wouldn’t come in a race. It came in 2024 when, on the advice of a coach at the National Center of Excellence in Tiruvananthapuram where he had been admitted to following his junior national title, he made the switch to the 400m. The move was a logical one. At 189 cm tall, Vishal’s frame and longer stride length was more suited for the quartermile rather than the short sprints.

“Initially I didn’t believe I would run as well as I did. But I decided to listen to my coaches. I learned I have to be patient and dedicated,” he says.

The shift wasn’t always smooth sailing. After recording a personal best of 46.77 in 2024, he began his 2025 season with a last-place finish at the Open Nationals.

“People who had started taking notice of me maybe began thinking maybe I wasn’t as good as they had hoped. I was also demotivated,” he says.

But that’s when Jason Dawson, the Jamaican-born coach who works with the Indian team pushed him.

“Coach taught me how I couldn’t go and win every race. It wasn’t just about winning all the time but winning where it mattered. If I continued to push myself, he told me I’d win where it mattered,” he says.

Since then, Vishal has had good races and less than good ones. But he’s got steadily better. Each month, fractions of a second were shaved off his 400m timing. A best of 46.77 in 2024, came down to 45.57 at the Asian Championships where he finished fourth and that in turn was brought down to the erstwhile new national record of 45.12 at the Inter State competition in August that year.

That was a new national record and the first person on the finish line to wrap him in a bear hug was his father Thennarasu.

“He travels around the country to watch me compete. There won’t be a single race where he’s not been on the finish line waiting for me,” says Vishal.

Thennarasu was waiting at the finish line once again in Ranchi. “It’s a blessing that I get to see my son make such a historic race,” he says.  

Despite making history in Ranchi, Vishal missed out on meeting the AFI’s qualification standard for the Commonwealth Games by just 0.02 seconds. It might be something that would have disappointed others but he’s able to see the bigger picture.

“People only enjoy seeing winnings but for me the fun comes when I’m in the training ground. It doesn’t matter where I’m running. I’m just a guy who loves to run,” he says.

Published on May 25, 2026