Asian Games 2026: How Balew’s 55-second sprint denied Gulveer gold

Gulveer, who clocked 28.29.38, eventually took silver, 1.87 seconds behind Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew, an improvement on the bronze he won three years ago in Hangzhou.

Updated : Sep 25, 2026 22:05 IST , NAGOYA - 4 MINS READ

The medal also continued a strong 2026 season for the Indian distance runner. At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Gulveer became the first Indian man to win a 10,000m medal at the Games when he claimed silver in 27:49.78. He followed it with bronze in the 5,000m. | Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

After running 9 and a half kilometers in a little under 27 and a half minutes, Gulveer Singh set off in a quartermiler-style sprint towards the finish line at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium. He ran his final lap of the men’s 10000m at the Asian Games in 57 seconds. It was a pace that left the rest of the field in the distance.

Well almost all of the field.

Level with Gulveer at the bell that sounded the final lap, Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew galloped the last quarter mile at just over 55 seconds. He would probably have been faster if he hadn’t slowed down to showboat on the final straight. It was a breathtaking finishing kick.

That fifth gear that the ex-Ethiopian runner found would win him his second straight gold medal over the distance at the Asian Games. He hopes it will put him in line for a sizeable 100,000 dollar bonus that he says he’s been promised by the Bahraini federation for winning an event at the Continental Games.

𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐙𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐙𝐇𝐎𝐔. 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐈-𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐘𝐀! 🥈⚡

Gulveer Singh puts on a distance-running masterclass, clocking an incredible 28:29.38 in the Men's 10,000m final to claim SILVER! The first Indian runner to bag back-to-back Asian Games medals… pic.twitter.com/fKjATSRvgC

— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) September 25, 2026

Gulveer, who clocked 28.29.38, eventually took silver, 1.87 seconds behind, an improvement on the bronze he won three years ago in Hangzhou.

After the race ended, Gulveer scampered off the track to cool down, looking barely interested in savouring his podium finish.

“I have to prepare for the 1500m tomorrow,” he hurriedly explained.

While the race might seem decided by Balew’s blistering finish, the truth is anything but. This result was settled a while ago. In an endurance race determined by a single-lap finish, it’s the athlete with the sprint advantage who will win. Between Gulveer and Balew, the Bahraini had the edge.

“ Koshish kiya tha (I tried) but he’s a 12.45 runner (over 5km) and I’m a 13.03 runner, “ Gulveer later said.

Against a runner with such an advantage of speed, there was a small window in which Gulveer could have won.

“His best chance would have been if the race was a fast one like a 27-minute race,” Scott Simmons, who coaches Gulveer at Colorado Springs in the USA, said.

What a fast race would have done is force Birhanu to not have nearly as much energy to expend in a straight shootout over a final lap.

Unfortunately for Gulveer, though, that was not to be. The 25-lap race started slowly and settled in at a modest 1.10 (per lap) pace. It briefly sped up to about a minute and four seconds per lap when Japan’s Yoshii Yamato set off to please the home crowd before dropping to its usual speed. China’s Wang Wenjie also tried to inject some momentum, but by the time he made that effort, it was already too late.

Gulveer celebrating his silver medal in the 10,000m at the Asian Games in Nagoya | Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

Of all the runners who might have tried to forced Birhanu to run the race Gulveer wanted, the only one who actually had the ability to do so was Gulveer himself who holds the national record of 27.00.02. Perhaps he could have attacked the track himself?

But the truth is that Gulveer too couldn’t have pushed the race harder. As India’s best long distance runner, the 28- year-old has been included not just in the 10000m on Friday but also the 1500m whose heats he will run tomorrow, the finals a couple of days later and the the 5000m (which incidentally will also feature Birhanu) the day after that.

He himself has to conserve his own energy over the next few days. And there was also little guarantee that Birhanu too wouldn’t be able to match a race run at a 27-minute pace. Although Birhanu’s personal best over the 10,000m is 27.07.49 – slower than the Indian’s best, some of that is due to the fact that he seldom runs the 10000m. And while he’s a specialist in the 5000m, he’s also more than capable of maintaining speed over long distances as his half marathon personal best of 58 minutes would suggest.

“It’s possible that there was nothing that could have been done. Birhanu might just have been too good,” Simmons admitted.

As such the silver he won was the best Gulveer could have done given the circumstances.

Aware of the constraints he was running under, Gulveer was eventually satisfied with his performance. “My target before today’s race was to change the colour of my medals. I’ve been able to do that.”