Cleveland, May 30 (IANS) Gulveer Singh, the 27-year-old Asian Games bronze medallist in the men’s 10,000m, became the first Indian runner to clock a sub-four-minute mile on Saturday at the 24th Annual Music City Track Carnival. The World Continental Tour event was organised at Lee University, Cleveland Campus, in the USA.

Gulveer Singh posted a creditable time of 3:55.63 seconds to finish first in the Men’s 1 Mile Pro event on Saturday. Christopher Knight, 20, representing the USA, was second with a time of 3:59.72, and Tristan Trevino, 21, also from the USA, was third with a time of 4:00.27.

The Indian star distance runner based in the USA is preparing for the upcoming Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in Japan.

The army runner is also the first Indian to break the 13-minute barrier for the 5,000m track race. His national men’s 5,000m indoor record is 12:59.77 seconds, set last year in the USA. The versatile distance runner also holds the men’s 10,000m national track record of 27:00.22.

Gulveer’s superb effort continues a record-breaking week by Indian athletes in various events at home and abroad.

India’s talented high jumper Pooja improved the national and meet record on the second day of the 22nd Asian U20 Athletics Championships being held in Hong Kong, on Friday.

On her way to winning the gold medal with a jump of 1.93m, Pooja improved the decade-old national record of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari in 2012. Pooja’s performance on Friday was also better than the previous Asian U20 meet record of 1.90m set by Svetlana Radzivil of Uzbekistan in 2006.

At the Federation Cup in Ranchi a few days back, Gurindervir Singh clocked 10.09s in the 100m, becoming the first Indian to do under 10.10s and securing Commonwealth and Asian Games qualification.

Barriers broken: Vishal TK ran 44.98s in the 400m, the first Indian to go sub-45, while Tejaswin Shankar crossed 8000 decathlon points for the first time in India.

–IANS

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