Gulveer Singh’s historic 10,000m silver medal for India on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in Glasgow could so easily have been a gold, believes Manisha Malhotra, President of the JSW Sports-backed Inspire Institute of Sport, an elite sportspersons’ training facility in Vidyanagar, Karnataka.

Former India tennis player Malhotra, a silver medallist at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, was at the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, watching Gulveer create history. “Firstly, the 10,000m race was not an easy field, and then the conditions were so tough, with the rain and cold winds making it a slow race. Gulveer did well to maintain his composure, but somewhere in between, I felt he got boxed in by the bunch of runners and probably couldn’t break through. Though the Australian athlete [gold medal winner Ky Robinson clocked 27:48.93] is an established runner and did well, I felt Gulveer [27:49.78] could have easily won the gold medal,” Malhotra told mid-day over the phone from Glasgow on Wednesday. Malhotra’s analysis comes from the fact that Gulveer’s personal best (27:14.88) is a lot quicker.