Himachal runner Sawan Barwal rewrote history on Sunday as he broke the 48-year-old marathon national record — the longest-standing mark in Indian athletics — at the NN Marathon Rotterdam.
Barwal clocked 2 hours 11 minutes and 58 seconds to finish 20th in the elite race, shaving a couple of seconds off the existing national record of 2:12:00 set by Shivnath Singh in 1978 in Jalandhar.
Just a year ago, the long-distance runner from the hill state had won gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m races at the National Games in Uttarakhand, breaking the meet record in both events.
Barwal belongs to Radda Bhanker village in Jogindernagar, Mandi district. His father Kuldeep Barwal said, “I am glad he has broken the record that stood for nearly 50 years. We are extremely proud to see him smashing records.”
For Kuldeep Barwal, who drives light commercial vehicles in Delhi, his son’s success is doubly satisfying. “I was also an athlete but couldn’t reach the heights my son has. So, his success tastes even sweeter,” he said.
While it was his father who introduced him to running, athletics coach Gopal Thakur spotted his talent and honed it over nearly a decade.
Then a coach with the state’s Sports Department, Thakur noticed Sawan in 2010 at a Panchayat Yuva Krida Khel Abhiyan.
Thakur has Sawan’s journey at his fingertips. “He started with a bronze medal at a national event and then won six gold medals over the next three years in the U-16 category in North Zone events.
After that, he never looked back,” said Thakur, now head coach at the Khelo India Centre of Excellence in Bilaspur.
“He was extremely focused and hardworking as a child, and that hasn’t changed. He will achieve many more laurels for the country,” he added.
Sawan was later recruited by the Army based on his achievements a few years ago. “He is probably the only athlete who holds a national record across events from 5,000m to the full marathon,” said Thakur.
