Nagoya, Sep 28 (IANS) India's distance runner Gulveer Singh, after a remarkable second-place finish in the 10000m event, added another silver medal in his kitty on Monday, this time from the men's 1500m at the ongoing Asian Games 2026.

Gulveer displayed a dominant run to finish second in the 1500m race with a personal best time of 3:36.72 as he sandwiched the two Japanese runners - Kazuto Iizawa and Nagiya Mori - at the podium. Iizawa clinched the gold with an Asian Games record time of 3:36.35, only 0.37s ahead of Gulveer, while Mori was third with a time of 3:37.92s.

Meanwhile, India's Avinash Sable failed to bag a medal in the men's 3000m steeplechase final as he finished fourth. Sable produced his season's best time of 8:21.67, but was 4.31s behind the gold medal winner Ryuji Miura of Japan. Another Japanese, Ryoma Aoki, was second with a run of 8:17.60s, while Qatar's Zakaria Elahlaami was third with a time of 8:18.13s.

Coming back to the 1500m final, Yoonus Shah was also in the medal clash after finishing third in his heat. In the overall timing of the 1500m heats, he had an even better run than Gulveer as Yoonus clocked 3:45.77, while Gulveer clocked 3:45.79 in his heat, resulting in both qualifying for the final.

However, Yoonus, even after being in a comfortable position for a good amount of time in the race, could muster a ninth-place finish in the final as he clocked a time of 3:43.88s.

Meanwhile, this is the second medal for Gulveer at the ongoing Asian Games after he also secured a silver in the 10000m final. He had won a bronze in the 10000m in the 2023 Hangzhou Games too.

Gulveer scripted a slice of Indian athletics history by becoming the first Indian to win two Asian Games medals in the men's 10,000m after clinching silver earlier.

Gulveer clocked 28:29.38 to finish second in the gruelling 25-lap race, adding silver to the bronze he won in the same event at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. He became the first Indian to stand on the Asian Games podium twice in the men's 10,000m.

Bahrain's Birhanu Balew won the gold in 28:27.51, finishing just 1.87 seconds ahead of Gulveer, while his compatriot Albert Kiptoo took bronze in 28:34.38. China's Wang Wenjie finished fourth in 28:38.14.

--IANS

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