India's Gulveer Singh eclipses his 10,000m national record in US meet

India's long-distance runner Gulveer Singh improved on his national record in the 10,000m race in The Ten Track Festival -- an event on the World Athletics Continental Tour -- by clocking 27:00.22 minutes to finish sixth in San Juan Capistrano, California.

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The previous record held by the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze-medallist runner was 27:14.88 set in Hachioji, Japan in November last year.

The 26-year-old Army man, winner of the bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, had re-set the national record twice last year. He timed 27:41.81 minutes at San Juan Capistrano in California in March before improving on it in Japan.

“Gulveer Singh clocks 27:00.22 to improve his national 10,000m record. He finished 6th at The Ten competition in USA on Saturday,” said the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in a social media post.

Gulveer, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, is also the national record holder in 5,000m with a time of 13:11.82 minutes set last year.

Gulveer's goal on Saturday was to break the 27 minutes’ barrier. Despite churning out an average pace for each lap, he missed his goal of a sub-27 timing.

“I was slightly off my goal pace at the half-way mark, which robbed me of a sub-27 minutes performance,” said Gulveer in a release.

Pace setter Joey Berriatua of the USA ensured that the group of runners, running in a single file, reached the first 4,000m of the 10k race in 10:48.09 seconds.

After the half-way mark, Gulveer surged to seventh spot. Another burst of energy with two laps to go, saw him finish sixth to begin his outdoor season on a promising note.

All the top-five runners in the field clocked sub-27 timings. Ishmael Kipkurui, representing University of Mexico, won the race with a time of 26:50.21.

In another men's 10,000m race, India's Kartik Kumar clocked 28:11.34 to finish eighth.

Rahul, competing in men's 1500m, clocked 3:41.10 seconds to finish eighth.

Seema, competing in women's 10,000m, clocked 32:14.66 seconds to finish 19th, while Ankita finished third in women's 1,500m with a time of 4:13.97 seconds.

All these athletes are currently based in Colorado Springs and training with India's foreign coach Scott Simmons.