Asian Athletics Championships | Gulveer wins India’s first gold on the opening day

Gulveer Singh wins India's first gold at Asian Athletics Championships, improving world ranking and World Championships qualification chances.

India’s best track athlete this season so far, Gulveer Singh continued his impressive performance with the country’s first gold at the Asian Athletics Championships, winning the 10,000m on the opening day of the competition in Gumi, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Having missed the automatic qualification for September’s World Championships by a mere 22 micro seconds, Gulveer had aimed to finish on top and go under 27 minutes at the Asians but the hot conditions meant he could only manage one of the two. The result, however, would be useful in improving his world ranking and chances to qualify for the Worlds. August 24 is the qualification cut-off date. Gulveer has already qualified in the 5000m.

Gulveer clocked 28:38.63 with a powerful sprint in the final lap to overtake Bahrain’s Albert Rop and Mebuki Suzuki of Japan for the top spot and his maiden international gold. Interestingly, this was slower than his Asian Games bronze timing and far from his personal best of 27:00.22 set in March in California. Sawan Barwal finished fourth in 28:50.53.

“Irrespective of the time, the main goal was to finish first. I’m happy to successfully implement my race strategy. The gold will definitely improve my world ranking and chances to qualify for the World Championships. In fact, despite the conditions, I could have gone faster if someone had pushed me harder as I wasn’t tired after the finish,” Gulveer said after the race.

Gulveer, who trains in Colorado, had said the same before leaving for Gumi. “There are no set targets as such, the aim is to only do better than what we do in training and improve our own performance. I tried to push hard in Doha (Diamond League) also but it was too hot and if I had pushed harder, I might not have finished the race only so I pulled back,” he had said here.

Training with some of the best athletes has helped improve his confidence as well. “Earlier, I used to keep behind the Kenyans in training, now I try to go ahead and step up and set the pace. If others can do it, why not Indians, they are also as human as us. We can and will do it, maybe not immediately but definitely.”

India’s medal haul began in the morning session with Servin Sebastian winning bronze in the 20km race walk. The 26-year-old clocked a personal best of 1:21:13.90 for his maiden international medal. Amit finished a creditable fourth.