Preeja set National record, Surender runs fastest 10000m

Kolkata, May 13 (UNI) Army's Surender Singh set another Championship record in the Men's 10000m, clocking 28:57.90s, the third all-time best by an Indian, on the fourth day of the 13th Federation Cup Athletics Championship at Salt Lake Stadium here.

It's also the fastest performance on Indian soil. Till now it was held by legendary Shivnath Singh's 1978 Jalandhar National win (28:58:1s).

Three days ago, Surender had set the Championship record in the Men's 5000m, emerging winner with a personal best timing of 13:51.64s, erasing Gulab Chand's nine-year-old record of 14:01.33s set in 1998.

Running with 70 seconds lap strategy, Surender was paced by Sunil Kumar till halfway but thereafter it was a solo run by Surender, fighting with humid and hot climate till the finish line.

Santosh Kumar Patel (29:19:37s) and Sadashivam Raghunath (29:28:52s) were a good 200m behind him and never looked very threatening.

Incredibly, first three winners bettered the championship record of Gulab Chand's 9-year-old record of 29:40:70s.

An elated Surender said, ''I wanted to break Shivnath's time and I am so happy to do it. In fact, I am not used to running on humid condition but it worked well for me today.''