The pace maker: Indian runner Gulveer Singh is breaking new ground

Singh, who is with the Indian Army, is following in the footsteps of another Army man, steeplechase runner Avinash Sable, who has made a habit of breaking distance records too.

Singh’s new national record betters the one he set last year in Japan, which, in turn was an improvement on the 16-year-old national record Singh broke, a few months before the Japan race.

His new mark is not just the best in Asia right now, it’s third on the all-time Asian list of 10,000m times, behind only Ahmad Hassan Abdullah (who holds the Asian record, at 26:38.76) and Nicholas Kemboi (26:51.87). Both were Kenyans who ran for Qatar.

Singh, who is from Sirsa village in Uttar Pradesh, knew nothing about the world of sports until as recently as 2018, when he was spotted by an Indian Army talent scout. He had been working on his running times, but only so he could clear the Army’s physical test.

It was during his first posting, in Arunachal Pradesh in 2019, that he was introduced to running as a sport. Colleagues told him about an upcoming inter-unit, cross-country competition, and he realised his unusual speeds could help him rise within the armed forces. This is how he ended up an athlete.

It has been just six years since. How will his natural talent be shaped further?

Singh, 26, now trains in Colorado, with the American coach Scott Simmons, who has had great success training the small group of top-distance runners that Sports Authority of India (SAI) has sent to him over the past couple of years.

While this is a good arrangement for elite runners, it does nothing for the structural improvement of distance running in India. SAI had, about a decade ago, identified middle-distance categories as a priority. This was a perfectly good choice, since sprints (100m, 200m and 400m) and the other end of the spectrum (marathons) both have a strong genetic component that leads to success. Those with the right genes — people with roots in West Africa for sprints, and those from the Rift Valley running through Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia for marathons — sweep up all medals at global events.

That leaves the middle-distance categories to focus on. Singh proves how much potential there is for India here. But SAI’s ambitious plans, of a dedicated centre with a world-renowned coach to develop runners from grassroot to elite levels, barely got a start before it stumbled and fell. The Dutch coach Hugo van den Broek left in a huff, complaining, as most foreign coaches in India do, of a total lack of professionalism, of meaningless obstructions, and of no freedom to implement his vision.

Back to Singh’s 27:00.22. It’s better than the Olympic record of 27:01.17, set by the great Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia in 2008, a record that stood for more than 15 years, before it was obliterated at Paris 2024. It was broken there not just by the new record holder Joshua Cheptegei (26:43.14) of Uganda, but also by the 12 runners just behind him.

That’s how far new training methodologies and shoe technology have helped runners come. Singh meanwhile has lowered his time by more than 41 seconds in the space of a year.

Can he shave off a few seconds more, and become a regular among the global elite?

(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com)