India at CWG 2026: Know Your Athlete – Mohammed Basil Morssinganakath (Para Athletics)

Event: Men's 100m T47Personal Best: 10.63sCWG Record: First Commonwealth Games appearanceMajor Achievements:Indian Open Para Athletics Championship: Gold, Men's 100m T47 (2026, Bengaluru)Mohammed Basil Morssinganakath's arrival on India's para athletics scene has been rapid. Born on 28 February 2005 in Kerala, he spent eight years as an able-bodied athlete, competing without any awareness that a parallel para-sport pathway existed for him. It was only last year, in 2025, that someone introduced him to the concept of para athletics — a conversation that changed the direction of his career almost overnight.Before that shift, his training was confined to what a school-level coach could offer, with limited access to specialised equipment or facilities. Since moving into the Sports Authority of India (SAI) system, he has had structured training under dedicated coaches for the first time, along with senior athletes and support staff guiding his transition into the T47 sprint category (for athletes with a unilateral upper-limb impairment).That transition paid off almost immediately: at the 8th Indian Open International Para Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in May 2026, Basil won gold in the Men's 100m T47 in a time of 10.63 seconds, holding off Maharashtra's Dilip Gavit, who pushed him all the way to the line in 10.64 seconds, with Karnataka's Babu Janu Pandaramise taking bronze in 11.19 seconds. That performance sealed his selection for India's 11-member para athletics squad — one of the country's strongest disciplines at this Games — for Glasgow 2026, his first-ever international competition at any level.Speaking ahead of the Games, Basil said his sole focus was on producing a good performance on the international stage, having prepared entirely within India rather than training abroad. For an athlete not even two years into the sport, simply lining up in a Commonwealth Games final represents a landmark moment — and he heads to Glasgow as one of the more compelling breakout stories in India's para athletics contingent.