Mohd Abdul Najeeb Qureshi on Wednesday equalled the national 100m record while qualifying for the semi-finals on the opening day of the track and field events which saw all the Indians, except two, making it to the next round in the Commonwealth Games.
Qureshi clocked 10.30sec to equal Anil Kumar's national record set in 2005 and finished fourth in the round two heat number one to qualify for the semis at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
Another Indian sprinter, G Nagaraj, failed to advance after finishing seventh in a round two heat with a time of 10.65secs, below his seasons's best of 10.55secs.
The 22-year-old Qureshi said he had prepared hard and was aiming to break the national record during the Games. He now targets the national record in the semi-finals.
"It was awesome to have broken the national record. I have trained very hard, had gone to Ukraine just before the Games. Now I will try for the national record in the semi-finals," he said.
Overall, Jamaican Andre Oshane Bailey ran the fastest time with 10.12sec ahead of Nigerian Egwero Oghoghene (10.13secs).
Indian women 100m runners H M Jyothi and Satti Geetha also qualified for the semi-finals after finishing fourth and fifth in their respective heats.
Jyothi finished fourth in heat number two with a timing of 11.81sec, below her personal best of 11.60sec. Geetha equalled her personal best effort of 11.80sec, which she clocked in May this year.
Natasha Mayers of St Kitts and Grenedians came up with the best overall time, a 11.33 effort, to win the heat number one.
In women's 400m race, both Manjeet Kaur and Mandeep Kaur qualified for the semi-finals with the former winning the heat in 52.75secs while the latter finished third in another heat with an effort of 52.48secs.
Amantle Montsho of Botswana led the timing list on Wednesday with an effort of 51.56secs ahead of Amertil Christine of Bahamas who clocked 52.08secs.
In men's shot put also, both the Indians Om Prakash and Shaurabh Vij qualified for the finals despite below par performances.
Om Prakash finished fifth with a throw of 18.48m, much below his season's best effort of 19.99m.
Vij, who made it to the Indian squad after his provisional suspension after testing positive for banned stimulant methylhexaneamine was lifted by NADA just before the Games, was seventh with 17.16m.
Woman hammer thrower Manju Bala could not qualify for the final as she finished 15th among 17 competitors with a throw of 54.84m.
In men's 5000m final, Indians Sunil Kumar and Sandip Kumar finished 14th and 16th among 22 runners with timings of 14:18.99 and 14:22.59.
Ugandan Moses Kipsiro stunned Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, the season's leading athlete and Beijing Olympics silver medallist, with an effort of 13:31.25, one of the slowest timings in the 5000m final in these Games.
Kipchoge, whose season's best was 12:51.21, clocked a disappointing 13:31.32. Another Kenyan, Mark Kiptoo, finished third with 13:32.58 below his season's best of 12:53.46, the third best time this year.
India's M Manjualam and Deepa Malik finished sixth and seventh in the shot put women's para sport event which was won by Louise Ellery of Australia with an effort of 6.17.
