India’s distance running was the saving grace of the Indian athletics campaign at the 2026 Asian Games. Gulveer Singh led the way with three medals in five days, winning silver in the 10,000m and 1,500m and bronze in the 5,000m. Sawan Barwal added a silver in the men’s marathon in a national-record 2:11:37, ending India’s 44-year wait for an Asian Games marathon medal, while Seema Kumari won bronze in the women’s 10,000m.
The performances came across vastly different distances, from the explosive demands of the 1,500m to the endurance required to run 42.195km. And yet, they are tied to one crucial factor. One crucial person.
Scott Simmons, the Indian distance-running coach, trained all three athletes in the same high-altitude environment in Colorado Springs in the United States.
For Simmons, the results in Nagoya are a validation of a private observation he made years ago. When he first came to Bengaluru in early 2022, he looked at India’s distance running and thought to himself: “This is a sleeping giant” that needed to be tapped into.
Simmons, in an interview with the Sports Authority of India, said he recognised that the talent was there, but the distance runners needed time, support and consistency to deliver the required results.
Four years later, the results are beginning to show what can happen when those ingredients come together.
WHAT WENT INTO MAKING ELITE DISTANCE RUNNERS
“We just needed the time and the support from the Indian government, from Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), and other stakeholders to give these athletes the opportunity to do the correct training, give them time to develop and continue the consistency,” Simmons said.
The change has been gradual. With support through the ACTC programme, an annual calendar of training and competitions supported by the Union sports ministry, the Athletics Federation of India backed extended overseas training for athletes such as Gulveer. Before the Asian Games, Gulveer spent six continuous months in the United States, training at the high-altitude base in Colorado Springs.
That extended stint meant he could train consistently rather than repeatedly preparing for individual competitions. It also allowed him to train and compete alongside athletes operating at a high international level.
For a distance runner, Simmons believes, that continuity is fundamental.
“I think in the past, there was no consistency. There was always a late rush to get fitness for Asian Championships and Asian Games, whereas in distance running in particular, it’s like building a house. You’re always building the house. And when you’re not building the house, then you’re tearing down the house,” Simmons said.
“And Gulveer’s done such a good job of continuing one step after another after another.”
That idea of continuing to build rather than repeatedly starting again is at the heart of what has happened to India’s distance runners. Nagoya provided the most compelling evidence yet.
GULVEER STEPS UP AT THE ASIAN GAMES
Gulveer’s Asian Games campaign was extraordinary even by the standards he has set for himself this year. He raced four times across five days and returned with three medals.
The plan, however, was never built around three events.
Simmons and Gulveer had prepared primarily for the 10,000m, which they considered his strongest event. The training for that race also gave him the foundation to compete in the 5,000m and eventually the 1,500m.
“The plan proved to be very successful,” Simmons said. “We obviously prepared 100% for the 10,000m. And Gulveer gave his best challenge, ending up with the silver. We thought that was his best event, but it also prepared him for the 1500m as a byproduct.”
Gulveer eventually won silver in both the 10,000m and 1,500m and bronze in the 5,000m.
It marked another significant step from his bronze in the 10,000m at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. It also followed his two-medal campaign at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he won silver in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m.
THE MARATHON MEDAL THAT NO ONE EXPECTED
If Gulveer’s three medals demonstrated what consistency can produce on the track, Sawan Barwal’s marathon silver showed what the same approach can begin to produce over the longest distance.
Barwal ran 2:11:37 in Nagoya, improving his own national record and winning silver. His medal ended India’s 44-year wait for an Asian Games marathon podium finish.
The performance was even more significant because Barwal is still relatively new to the marathon.
Simmons said his development has been carefully structured, with the Indian runner benefiting from training alongside established marathoners in Colorado Springs.
“He’s been able to do training with athletes on that level,” Simmons said.
Barwal’s result also stood in contrast to Kartik Karkera’s performance in the same event. Karkera finished 17th, well outside his personal-best level.
Karkera had been sent to Kenya for high-altitude training, but was asked to return to India to prove his fitness, cutting short his training period by two weeks.
THE BENEFIT IS BEGINNING TO SPREAD
The results have not been limited to Gulveer and Barwal. Seema Kumari won bronze in the women’s 10,000m, giving India its first Asian Games medal in the event since 2010.
Her performance added another dimension to the story Simmons is trying to tell about Indian distance running.
The point of a training group is not simply to produce one successful athlete. It is to create an environment where athletes can learn from one another, compete against one another and gradually raise the level of the entire group.
“When we all pull together and we train together, then everybody improves and everybody can get to this next level. And we saw that obviously with the Indians’ performance here in Nagoya,” Simmons said.
That is perhaps what makes the results in Nagoya particularly significant. Three Indian distance runners, competing in different events and over different distances, all reached the podium.
THE OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION TARGET
The next question is whether this progress can carry India beyond the Asian Games. Simmons believes it can.
The Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are still two years away, and qualification standards are becoming increasingly demanding. But Simmons believes that the athletes training in Colorado Springs now have the belief that Olympic qualification is within their reach.
“They believe they can qualify and qualifying is more difficult than it’s ever been,” Simmons said. “But again, they’re in a training group with others that have their eyes set on it also.”
Simmons also believes India should already be thinking beyond the current group. He wants two to four younger Indian athletes brought into the long-distance programme now, with the understanding that it could take two to four years for them to reach the level of the current group.
For Simmons, the progress in Nagoya is therefore not an endpoint. It is evidence of what can happen when Indian distance runners are given the time, consistency and training environment needed to build properly.
The sleeping giant he saw in Bengaluru in 2022 has finally begun to move. And with Los Angeles 2028 now on the horizon, the next stage of that journey has already begun.
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