No rest for Kashmiri

For sophomore sprinter Shafiq Kashmiri, a record-breaking performance is merely practice.

“I’m more excited about the outdoor season,” Kashmiri said. “Indoor is more of a tune-up. I need to drop my outdoor times.”

Kashmiri looks primed to build on his success from his freshman year. The Singapore native showed that he is a fierce competitor last season, picking up points in several crucial late-season match-ups.

He opened this season in December with a time of 34.41 seconds in the indoor 300 meters at the New Year Invitational, setting the school record in the process.

Head coach Fred Samara does not expect Kashmiri to have any problems meeting his outdoor season dreams.

“Our goals are pretty extensive,” Samara said. “We’d like to see him run sub 21 in the 200 and in the 46 second range in the 400. I’d like to see him win the 200 and 400 at the Ivy League championships.”

By the time the Ivy League’s Heptagonal Championship rolls around in the spring, Kashmiri will have been running in competition for two straight years without a break. While most runners were resting their legs over the summer, he was using his to represent his country.

At the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand last August, Kashmiri had a chance to represent both Singapore and Old Nassau. Kashmiri had no problem meeting the initial “very lenient” cutoff of 21.90 seconds in the 200m, but he was less sure about his home country’s more stringent requirements.

In the end he made the cut in the 100, 200, and 400m. Kashmiri chose to focus his efforts on the 100m and placed in the top four in his heat.

At the Asian Track Championships in Amman, Jordan, Kashmiri was given the honor of leading off Singapore’s 4x400m relay team and ran the 200m as well. He had one of his best races in the 200m, a clutch performance that did not surprise his coach back in the States.

“He’s a very good competitor,” Samara said. “He has what we call a nose for the tape, and he’s very tenacious.”

Such prolific output is even more impressive considering that Kashmiri did not run competitively until his junior year in high school — and even then not as a sprinter. Kashmiri first attracted the attention of coaches and spectators in the 400-meter hurdles.

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“The 400 [hurdles] is the hardest event in my opinion,” Kashmiri said. “It requires speed, endurance and skill.”

After achieving high school success in Singapore, Kashmiri decided that he wanted to leave his homeland for college.

“I wanted an international education,” Kashmiri said. “I wanted to be independent. It came down to the United States and the United Kingdom, but ultimately the decision came down to running.”

If not for some timely second-hand advice, Kashmiri may never have made it to Princeton. Samara first heard of Kashmiri from the head coach of the men’s squash team. He in turn had heard of Kashmiri from a contact in Singapore who lauded the young sprinter’s ability.

Samara took the report with a grain of salt but asked for Kashmiri’s e-mail address and promised to contact him. Samara was true to his word, and a year later Kashmiri was running for the Tigers. Neither Kashmiri nor Samara regrets the choice.

“People back home think I improved because of coaching, but really you improve because of your teammates — your sparring partners,” Kashmiri said.

Samara agrees, and he’s glad to have him around. Kashmiri’s presence here is particularly fortuitous for Princeton considering that his running career almost stalled before he came to college.

When Samara contacted him, he had already been out of high school for two years. All adult males on the island must report for military duty after their 18th birthday, and Kashmiri was no exception.

Educational deferments are not granted, and failure to comply results in a loss of citizenship. For his running career, it was a setback.

“I missed a lot of my best training time in the army,” Kashmiri said. “But I also caught a break.”
That “break” was being assigned to a sympathetic commander who recognized his skill and allowed him to train regularly. This time, he decided to focus on short-distance sprinting because his responsibilities made it difficult to train for the 400m.

Ultimately, the highlight of Kashmiri’s time in the army was qualifying for the Singapore national 4x100m relay team. His team went on to post a blistering 40.51, with Kashmiri running the second leg.

Kashmiri hopes to compete for his country at even higher levels. He has a shot at the Olympics, though he admits it’s an outside one.

“It depends on how this season goes. If I break my national team record I’ll have a very good chance,” Kashmiri said.

Olympics or not, his running career will likely end come senior year. Kashmiri plans to pursue a career back home in financial services. That does not mean, however, that his time on the track team has been wasted.

“I love the work ethic, the teammates,” Kashmiri said. “I might have had the grades to get into Princeton, but without [running] I would not have been happy.”