After breaking national record, distance runner Gulveer eyes Worlds qualifying mark
Army’s distance runner Gulveer Singh could not have imagined how his first race of the year would pan out. Turns out the 26-year-old started the year on the right track as he broke the 3000m indoor national record at Boston University Track on Friday night.
Gulveer, who won the bronze medal in 10,000m at the Hangzhou Asian Games, clocked 7:38.26 seconds, a national record, to finish second in the 3000m event at the 2025 BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational Indoor Meet. The previous national record of 7:49.47 seconds was registered by Surendar Singh in 2008. Interestingly, Surendar is now a coach.
After starting the year with a bang, Gulveer has set his sights on achieving the automatic qualifying mark of 27:00.00 in men’s 10,000m track race for the 2025 World Athletics Championships, which will happen in Japan later this year.
“I am happy to have clocked a good time in my season’s first Indoor race in Boston,” the 26-year-old said in a statement after his Friday record-breaking performance.
“Good performance in the 3000m race has given a big boost and I should be able to do better during upcoming outdoor races,” he added.
Apart from registering the new national record in 3,000 (indoor), Singh has been consistently improving his timings in other track races. Last year, he improved his own timings in both 5,000m and 10,000m to better the national record. His national record in 10,000m outdoor track race sits at 27:14.88, while his personal best in 5,000m time is 13:11.82.
While Singh made a new national record, compatriot Rahul finished a lowly 112th after finishing the race with a timing of 8:08.27s. In the men’s 5,000m indoor race, Kartik Kumar finished 95th after clocking 14:05.67 seconds.
The Indian middle and long distance runners are currently training in Colorado Springs in the USA to prepare for the upcoming Asian and World Athletics Championships under the guidance of India’s foreign coach Scott Simmons.
