Catch me if you can | Marathon runner Sawan Barwal
Sawan Barwal has broken a 48-year-old record to become India's fastest marathoner
Talent hunts are known to unearth gems. One such programme discovered India’s fastest marathoner, Sawan Barwal. On April 12, the 28-year-old smashed Indian athletics’ longest-standing men’s national record at the NN Marathon Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Barwal clocked 2 hours, 11 minutes, 58 seconds (2.11.58) to go under Shivnath Singh’s time (2.12.00) from 1978 and meet the qualifying mark for the Asian Games later this year. This was also the first time Barwal ran a competitive marathon.
Talent hunts are known to unearth gems. One such programme discovered India’s fastest marathoner, Sawan Barwal. On April 12, the 28-year-old smashed Indian athletics’ longest-standing men’s national record at the NN Marathon Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Barwal clocked 2 hours, 11 minutes, 58 seconds (2.11.58) to go under Shivnath Singh’s time (2.12.00) from 1978 and meet the qualifying mark for the Asian Games later this year. This was also the first time Barwal ran a competitive marathon.
“Right after the 2022 Asian Games, I first considered running the marathon at the next edition. I wanted to start training for the distance last year, but it was only possible in January as I was injured,” says Barwal.
During his early days, he played everything from badminton and volleyball to kho-kho and kabaddi. But he was gradually developing endurance while trotting up and down the slopes around his hometown of Jogindernagar in Himachal Pradesh. In 2017, his fearless running made an instant impact on army scouts who were looking for junior talents. Over the next two years, Barwal trained at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.
After joining the Indian Army, he ran every distance from 1,500m on track to 25km road races. Last year, he set new National Games records in the 5,000m and 10,000m events. Then, earlier this year, the Reliance Foundation athlete started working towards his longest distance yet.
In Rotterdam, Barwal targeted a sub-2.10 timing. At the 40km mark (2.03.40), it seemed on track until he stumbled over the remaining distance. “I had thrown some water on my head, then a cold breeze hit me. My entire face froze. I just couldn’t think straight, blacked out and fell a couple of times before the finish,” he recalls.
Though he was told about the record, Barwal was distraught, well aware that he could have been a lot faster. It wasn’t until he had a word with his partner, Shabnam, that he made peace with the result. “She explained how no runner had managed to better the mark in 48 years. And how I should enjoy the moment, for there would be plenty of opportunities,” he says.
