CHENNAI: GULVEER Singh has continued his golden run this year. The national record holder in both 5000 metres (12:59.77s, Feb 2025) and 10,000 metres (27:00.22s, Mar 2025) added another feather to his cap by winning India's first gold medal in the 10,000m with a timing of 28:38.63 seconds at the Asian Athletics Championship in Gumi, South Korea on Tuesday.
This year Gulveer has been in domineering form and he credits it to a lot of hard work and exposure trips to the United States. He has been training at Colorado Springs under India's foreign middle and long distance coach Scott Simmons and that according to him has helped him improve his timing. He has massively improved his record from the 2023 Asian meet in Bangkok where he had clocked 29:53.69s.
In fact, tracing his progression is quite interesting. In November 2022 he had a personal best of 28:54.29 and in 2023 it was down to 28:17.21. In the last couple of years he has been spending more time in the US and the progress seemed quite visible. In 2024 his best was 27:14.88, bettered more than a minute and in 2025 he has hit his best strides.
"Training under the coach (Scott) and practising with Kenyans and Ethiopians impacted me positively," he told this daily from Gumi. "There has been good feedback and everything has helped me improve."
Coming back to the run, Gulveer, who was the favourite to win, got into the leading pack, along with Albert Rop of Bahrain, and Suzuki Mebuki of Japan. That continued for the entire race. Under the warm sun in Gumi, Gulveer remained cool and calm, and waited for his opportunity to overtake. That opportunity came when the final lap was announced, and Gulveer took off. Coming towards the first straights of the lap, the 26-year-old speeded past Albert and built a 10-second gap. Gulveer saw the finish line and celebrated with his hands wide open. His compatriot, Sawan Barwal missed out on a podium finish, with a timing of 28:50.53sec.
Gulveer is yet to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year. He felt that the gold-medal will strengthen his chances of a place, via the 'Road to Tokyo' ranking quota. His national record is 22 milliseconds shy of the direct qualification mark. "I will not stop my pursuit for a sub-27 minute run," he stated.
Hailing from a family of farmers from Sirsa village in Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh, Gulveer joined the army at an early age. He took to cross-country running. "I was brought into the track by the coaches and that's how my journey started," he added.
Gulveer will participate in the 5000m final later in the meet.
Servin clinches bronze, Annu disappoints
Earlier, India's first medal came from Servin Sebastian, in the 20 kilometre racewalk. He finished third, clocking at 1.21:14s. Sebastian's timing was shy of his personal best of 1.21:23s, set earlier this year for a gold at the National Games in Dehradun in February. China's Wang Zhaozhao (1:20:36.90) and Japan's Kento Yoshikawa (1:20:44.90) won the gold and silver respectively. Amit, the other Indian in the field, finished fifth with a time of 1:22:14.30.
Disappointment continued for national record holder in women's javelin throw Annu Rani. Her 58.30 metres throw didn't land her in the top three. The last time she threw more than or equal to 60 metres was in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, where she won gold (62.92m).
Decathlete Tejaswin started off strong, and ended Day 1 at pole position with 4085 points.
On Wednesday, the likes of Shailli Singh, Jyothi Yarraji, Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker, Rupal Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj will be vying for more medals.
Results: Men's 10,000 metre final: Gulveer Singh (India) 28:38.63, Mebuki Suzuki (Japan) 28:43.84, Albert Kibichii Rop (Bahrain) 28:46.82, Sawan Barwal (India--4th) 28:50.53.20km race walk: Wang Zhaozhao (China) 1:20:36.90 (championships record: previous best 1:24:41 by Yutaro Murayama of Japan in 2023), Kento Yoshikawa (Japan) 1:20:44.90, Servin Sebastian (India) 1:21:13.60. Amit (5th time 1:22:57.60). Women Javelin throw: Su Lingdan (China) 63.29m, Momone Ueda (Japan) 59.39m, Sae Takemoto (Japan), Annu Rani (India –4th) 58.30m.
