Army’s distance runner Gulveer Singh books ticket for Asian Athletics Championship

Four years ago, the army's 24 years old Gulveer Singh from district Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh did normal routine work in his unit. He had no idea about sports or running.

“I joined the army in 2018 in the general category, but got involved in athletics in 2019,” the 24-year-old revealed.

On the opening day of the 26th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships on Monday (May 15) at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Stadium, Gulveer Singh won men’s 10,000m gold with a time of 29:05.90 seconds. His performance was better than the Asian Athletics Championship qualifying time of 29:30.

Gulveer Singh ran a conservative pace in the initial stages of the 25-lap race, but surged ahead in the last five laps to go for the finish.

“It is challenging to do front running for 25 laps. That’s why I conserve my energy for the finish,” the gold medalist told Sportskeeda over the phone from Ranchi.

In the men’s 10,000m race, as many as top eleven athletes dipped below the Asian athletics qualification time of 29 minutes 30 seconds. Gujarat’s international runner Murli Kumar Gavit, who finished 11th in the field of 35 athletes, clocked 29:27.76 secs.

The women’s 10,000m race was start to finish for Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav. Her gold medal winning time of 33:32.73 secs was nearly 30 seconds slower than the Asian qualifying time of 33 minutes. Of the five athletes that took the field, only four finished the race.

Md Nur Hasan of Uttar Pradesh and Priti Lamba from Haryana, the winners of men and women’s 3000m steeplechase, respectively, also qualified for the continental championships.

Away from the track races, Uttar Pradesh’s Tanya Chaudhary won gold medal in the women’s hammer throw with a distance of 60.54m. But she missed the Asian qualification standard of 62.03m. Tanya had a series of 57.39m, 51.76m, 55.73m, no mark, 60.54m and no mark.

While international thrower Sarita R Singh also of UP finished a close second with a throw of 60.45m. Punjab’s Manpreet Kaur was third at 57.08m.

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Results (all finals)

Men

10,000m (Asian championship qualification time 29:30): Gulveer Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 29:05.90 seconds, Abhishek Pal (UP) 29:07.11 secs, Rohit Kumar (Delhi) 29:08.95 secs.

3000m steeplechase (Asian championship qualification time 8:40): Md Nur Hasan (UP) 8:30.56, Vikram Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 8:40.20, Sumit Singh (Delhi) 8:48.49 secs.

Women

10,000m (Asian championship qualifying time 33:00.00): Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra) 33:32.73 secs, Kavita Yadav (UP) 34:05.47 secs, Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 34:43.66 secs.

3000m steeplechase (Asian championship qualifying time 9:58.55): Priti Lamba (Haryana) 9:47.78 secs, Bhagyashree Lahanu (Gujarat) 10:24.03, Komal Chandrakant Jagdale (Maharashtra) 10:25.32 secs.

Hammer throw (Asian championship qualifying standard 62.03m): Tanya Chaudhary (UP) 60.54m, Sarita R Singh (UP) 60.45m, Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) 57.08m.