NAGOYA: The shift to the marathon early this year proved decisive for Sawan Barwal as he won an Asian Games silver on Saturday, and he said it would have been a "waste of time" had he not won a medal here.
Barwal ran a stunning marathon race to hand India an unexpected silver, shattering his own national record in the process.
He clocked 2 hour, 11 minute and 37 seconds to complete the distance of 42.
195km.
In fact, it was his second national record in as many races.
In April this year, he broke Shivnath Singh's 48-year-old national record in Rotterdam, with a time of 2:11:58, in only his first marathon race of his career.
This medal is very precious for me. I have been training and competing for 15-16 years. If I didn't get this medal, it would have been meaningless and a waste of time.
This is a very big achievement for me," the 28-year-old Army man told PTI after the race.
Hailing from Joginder Nagar in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, Barwal's father Kuldeep worked as a driver in New Delhi while mother Subhadra Devi is a homemaker.
Barwal has been a runner for over a decade, but his initiation to running happened by chance after a visit to a track near home.
His elder brother was on the school's track team. Watching from the sidelines, he was roped in to train for 1500m at the age of 14.
His first national level event was in U18 category in 2015, a 3000m race.
His first senior level race was in 2021 in the Federation Cup in 5000m.
He won both the 5,000m and 10,000m gold in the 2025 National Games in Dehradun. In 2019, he joined his elder brother in the Army, under the sports quota.
He made the shift to marathon on the advice of his coaches -- Younis Khan at the Army Sports Institute in Pune and Ajith Markose at the Reliance Foundation -- after his VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake) was found to be high, which would make him a very good in the 42.
195km distance.
VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen (mL/kg/min) that the body can take in and consume per minute per kilogram of body weight during strenuous exercise.
"Yes, I was confident to make a mark in the marathon. So, it was a right decision," he said.
Asked if he thought he would break two national records in his first two marathon races, he said, "I started marathon because I had only one target, that is to break the national record.
The 2 hour 12 minute mark was a barrier for the Indians in marathon. I took the challenge to break the national record.
I said if I don't run below 2:12, there is no point in running marathon.
However on Saturday, he did not think about breaking his own national record.
He was focused on winning a medal. Today, I didn't run to break the national record.
It could be as slow as possible, but I wanted to win a medal. When I started running at a good speed, I thought that I could break the national record.
But still breaking national record was not in my mind. I just wanted to maintain my pace.
After breaking Shivnath Singh's national record in April, Barwal did high-altitude training in Ooty before he was sent to Colorado Springs for further training. After April, I was in Ooty.
The federation sent me to Colorado Springs for practice.I was in Colorado Springs for two months before the Asian Games.
Reliance Foundation supported me. It was good for me.
I trained with elite trainers, and that gave me confidence to do well in the Asian Games. His silver is the first medal for India in the Asian Games after the bronze won by Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan in the 1982 edition in New Delhi.
Barwal is also the fourth Indian to have ever won a medal in the Asian Games. Chhota Singh and Surat Singh Mathur had won a gold and bronze respectively in the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi.
On his future plans, Barwal said, I will take a break for a month.
And then I will try to qualify for the 2027 World Championships.
