30 July,2026 09:01 AM IST | Mumbai | Rohit Mahajan
India’s Gulveer Singh with his silver medal on Tuesday. Pic/AFP
"Prabhu, dekh lena, kya hoga kya nahin hoga [God, you please take care of whatever happens]" this, said Gulveer Singh, was his strategy for the race of his life as a fierce Glasgow storm threatened to disrupt the athletics events at the Scotstoun Stadium on Tuesday night.
Seeing the pelting rain, Gulveer said he left all to God as strategy was of no supreme importance. But Gulveer did have some plans, and executed them perfectly to win a historic silver in the men's 10,000m race at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games here. The 28-year-old from Sirsa of Atrauli district, Uttar Pradesh, has entered an elite club - he's only the third Indian man to win a solo medal on the track in the Commonwealth Games, after the great Milkha Singh and Avinash Sable.
Gulveer Singh, a farmer and fauji, ran a brilliant race - he kept up with the lead pack throughout and, as time ticked by, slowly edged up the order. After 6,000 metres, he was sixth; after two more laps, he was up to fifth. Then, when the bell rang for the final lap, Gulveer was third, primed to launch his decisive kick - and, some 200m before the finish line, he moved to the second lane, to the right of Kenya's Edwin Kurgat, and passed him. He never wavered thereafter, even as a desperate David Mullarkey of Isle of Man chased him, in vain.
Gulveer clocked 27 minutes, 49.78 seconds for his silver show. "The weather, it wasn't a problem. If it had been hot, you never know what would have happened, the throat would have been parched," he said.
Australia's Ky Robinson won gold, clocking 27:48.93.
Indeed, the wet track, the cold and the wind, may have caused trouble to Daniel Ebenyo of Kenya and Oscar Chelimo of Uganda, both World Championship medallists, who finished 12th and 6th, respectively. So, it wasn't as if Gulveer won a silver in a race lacking pedigree runners.
Later at night, when he was cornered near his hotel for a brief chat, he seemed indifferent about his feat - and focussed on his next event, the men's 5000m, scheduled to be run on August 1.
In fact, amazingly enough, he said that his family - parents, wife, children - weren't even aware that he had run the greatest race of his life on Tuesday. "You see, I don't really tell them when I'm running. They will know tomorrow. I have my brother and sister, even they don't disturb me, they say they can see my results later," he said.
One
Gulveer is the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games medal in the men's 10,000m
Gold medal in men's 5,000m at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea
Gold medal in men's 10,000m at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea
Bronze medal in men's 10,000m at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China
Bronze medal in men's 5,000m at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok
