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

He is set to be India’s first 10,000m runner to qualify directly for the Olympics. But why aren’t there more like him? There should be.

Gulveer Singh is so close. Just 220 milliseconds away. (With 1,000 milliseconds in a second, we’re talking blink-and-you-miss-it close.)

If Gulveer Singh can shave a few seconds more off his time, he could truly become one of the global elite. (Courtesy SAI / X)

It will be hard to bet against him becoming India’s first 10,000m runner to directly qualify for the Olympics (Surendra Singh ran that distance at Beijing 2008, but on a quota).

Gulveer Singh smashed his own national record by more than 14 seconds last week, at the Ten 2025 athletics meet in California.

Olympic qualification or not — LA 2028 is