Gulveer Singh breaks men's 10,000m national record in California

Gulveer Singh broke the men's 10,000m national record on Saturday night at The Ten in San Juan Capistrano, California.

Gulveer, who won a bronze medal at the Asian Games, clocked a time of 27.41.81 to better Surender Singh's time of 28.02.89 by over 20 seconds. Surender set the national record in 2008.

The 25-year-old finished second and won the silver medal.

However, the effort was not enough for Gulveer to secure a Paris Olympics quota place as he missed the qualification mark by 41 seconds.

Another Indian athlete competing in the event was Kartik Kumar, who finished ninth, clocking 28:01.90.

Meanwhile, Avinash Sable, competing in the same event, pulled out of his heat in the 15th lap at the 6,000m mark.

In the women’s 10,000m, Parul Chaudhary made a disappointing 20th-place finish, clocking below par 32:02.08. Hence, she missed the Paris qualification, which stands at 30:40.00.

This performance in California will help Gulveer recover from the disappointment of losing his men's 3000m gold medal for 'lane infringement' in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran, Iran.

In February, despite making the top of the podium finish, clocking 8 minutes 07.48 seconds in the final, Gulveer lost the gold medal as he was disqualified.

Though the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had made a late-night appeal to overturn the decision, unfortunately, it was rejected.

Last year at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Gulveer won a bronze medal in the men's 10,000 racewalk event, with Kartik winning the silver.

Gulveer had clocked 28:17.21 compared to Kartik's 28:15.38 to secure a third-place finish at the continental showpiece.