Asian Games 2026: Gulveer Singh bags silver in men's 10,000m as India's medal tally rises to 22

India’s Gulveer Singh won the silver medal in the men’s 10,000m event at the Asian Games 2026 at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Friday (Sep 25). The 28-year-old clocked 28:29.38 to finish second behind Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew, who claimed gold with a late push and a time of 28:27.51. Balew’s compatriot Albert Kiptoo took bronze after finishing in 28:34.38.

Gulveer, a Naib Subedar in the Indian Army, stayed among the leading runners for most of the race and remained in medal contention until the final stages. Balew managed to pull away towards the finish, while Gulveer comfortably secured second place.

The silver is an improvement on Gulveer’s performance at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where he won bronze in the same event.

Gulveer has been in strong form in recent years, as he won gold in both the 5,000m and 10,000m at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

At the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he became the first Indian to win two track medals at a single edition of the Games, claiming silver in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m.

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He had earlier won bronze in the men’s 5,000m at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, India’s Pooja finished sixth in the women’s heptathlon 800m with a time of 2:16.43, while Anamika Aneesh finished eighth.

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India also added another athletics medal on Friday, with Manpreet Kaur winning bronze in the women’s shot put. She recorded a best throw of 17.17m, while Krishna Jayasankar Menon finished fifth with 16.57m.

At the time of writing, India had won 22 medals at the Asian Games, including two gold, nine silver and 11 bronze and were 12th in the standings.