“Running the 60 metres (hurdles) fast helps because it is a short race. You try not to make mistakes because that will cost you. In yesterday’s race also, I clipped some hurdles and it cost me time. Minimising mistakes in the 110 hurdles and helping me stay sharp (is how 60 metres helps),” Shirse told The Indian Express.

Shirse’s is targeting the Asian Championships in the first half of the season before focussing on the World University Games and the World Championships. After the National Games, he is set to travel to Australia for outdoor races.

The Aurangabad athlete was a budding gymnast before he took up athletics and his career choice seems to be the right one.

James Hillier, Director of Athletics, Reliance Foundation, said he was confident that Shirse would rewrite the national mark in the first race of the season. “We approach breaking the national record in two very different ways – for the outdoors, it was very much driven by success, we never spoke about breaking the national record, not once, because it is about him working on process and executing a good race plan and I knew he is capable of breaking the record and he did. Indoors was a bit of a different approach, because now he has broken the outdoor record, it was a case of getting the record broken and then you can focus on the rest of the season. We were very confident he would break it in the first race, he has been training really well,” Hillier said.

The coach also said that Shirse breaking the national record would help the hurdler relax for the rest of the season.

“He has got this race and he has three more races coming up in Europe, so it’s a different approach. He is a lot more professional now, he takes everything in his stride, so breaking a national record now is obviously a big thing for him as a thing to do, rather than the excitement of it. Now the aim will be to bring the record down even more”