CHENNAI: There was a sprinkling of grit, endurance and luck for India’s 10000m runners at the Asian Games on Saturday. As the athletes bunched together towards the finish line three stumbled out of the race. Kartik Kumar touched the tape in 28:15.38s while his compatriot Gulveer Singh managed 28:17.21s for second and third finishes. Both clocked their personal best timings. The gold went to Birhanu Yemataw Balew of Bahrain (28:13.62).
Interestingly, Kartik and Gulveer were late entrants into long-distance running. But when they started, they shone. In fact, the two were part of the Indian contingent that was training at Colorado Springs for 10 weeks. The Athletics Federation of India had hired coach Scott Simons to train top middle and long distance runners and they were part of their programme until the Asian Games. Scott Simons has been working well with Indian athletes including Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhury.
The AFI president, Adille Sumariwalla, had told this daily that they had been planning meticulously for the Asian Games and the long-distance runners have undergone some good times in the United States. Kartik, who was spotted by Army Sports Institute coach Yunus Khan, started running sometime around 2018-19. According to the coach, he was part of the Lucknow sports academy. Yunus described the rationale behind choosing him for long-distance running. “He has long legs and a slender body like Kenyans and we thought he would be suited for long distance,” he told this daily.
“His haemoglobin count also was very good so was his VO2Max (the maximum amount of oxygen the body can absorb during exercise) was also very good.”
Kartik’s father is a farmer in Saharanpur and started training after he was enlisted in the Army. According to Yunus, from ASI Pune, he was supported by Reliance Foundation to train and then he got into the national team. He was coached by national record holder Surender Singh in Bengaluru. He said that he was part of the SAI junior programme in Lucknow for a short while before joining the Army.
While Kartik joined the Army as a havaldar, Gulveer’s case is quite interesting. He did not join the Army through sports. He was a non-sportsman. He in fact joined the Army and did duty in the unit before coming to ASI. “He was selected after he did well in the cross-country run,” said Yunus. Gulveer had served in areas like Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh while performing his duties. Only while serving at these places did he start running and competing. According to Yunus, he joined ASI through cross country. “Reliance Foundation also helped them with training and diet.”
The runners also have something in common. The two were part of the Reliance Foundation programme since October last year before they joined the national camp. Ajith Markose, an endurance coach who worked with the two while they were part of the high-altitude training camp in Wellington last year, talked about their journey. “We supported them before they joined the national camp in Bengaluru,” said Ajith.