India’s Gulveer Singh completed a historic triple-medal haul at the Asian Games 2026 on Tuesday, but the distance runner admitted he was not satisfied with his campaign, as his dream of hearing the National Anthem from the podium remained unfulfilled. Gulveer won bronze in the men’s 5000m final, clocking 13:32.75 at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium to add to the silver medals he had secured in the 10,000m and 1500m events. His third medal made him the first Indian athlete in 40 years to win three medals at a single edition of the Asian Games. However, the achievement did not completely satisfy the 27-year-old, who had arrived in Nagoya targeting gold.
My only dream was to stand on the podium and have the National Anthem played. That did not happen. Because i had come here thinking that my National Anthem would be played, “One thing is that I am not satisfied. Because of the preparation and support he received from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), reflecting on his three-medal campaign, Gulveer said the difficult weather conditions in Nagoya did not trouble him as much.
We will see next time and come back after working even harder,” Gulveer told the broadcaster after the race.
“What happened today is over, so leave it. We had good weather for training, good support and a good coach. I trained there continuously. That has benefited me. “I was preparing for recruitment. I did not have much knowledge about athletics. Now we will think about what to do next. We have to keep climbing the steps and forget what we have done in the past. “My mother and father will be the happiest. When I see them in the media, it feels good. My parents, my whole family, my coaches and the sports science team will all be happy. The US coach will also be happy with these three medals.
Because of the way we trained and came here, “It turned out to be good.
AFI has continuously supported us,” he said. “After the Commonwealth Games, before the World Cross Country in January, AFI told me to continue training there. Since we cannot stay in the US for six months, I came back to India for around a month for the Commonwealth Games, and then AFI told me to go back and continue training there. Gulveer, who comes from an Army background, said his initial tryst with running was driven by preparation for recruitment rather than dreams of becoming an international athlete. Then I joined the Army, and after joining the Army, things developed from there,” he said. We have to think about what we need to do next,” he said. AFI has supported us throughout,” he said.
