Gulveer Singh, a 26-year-old Indian athlete, won the gold medal in the men’s 5,000 meters race at the World Athletics Continental Tour in Japan yesterday. He set a new national record with a time of 13 minutes and 11.82 seconds.
This broke his own previous record of 13 minutes and 18.92 seconds, which he had set earlier this year.
Before that, the record was held by compatriot Avinash Sable. In March this year, Gulveer broke the men’s 10,000m record at the Ten Track Meet in California.
He crossed the finish line in 27 minutes and 41.81 seconds, and in doing so, he improved on Surender Singh’s old mark of 28 minutes and 02.89 seconds, set nearly 16 years ago in 2008. However, Gulveer’s effort was not enough for Olympic qualification, as he missed the Paris Games qualification time of 27:00.00 by over 41 seconds.