Asian Games: Sawan Barwal, India’s marathon man, ends a 44-year wait

The last time an Indian had a podium finish in marathon at the Asian Games was 44 years back at home – and this alone sums up the significance of Sawan Barwal’s silver in Aichi Nagoya on Saturday. Not only the 28-year-old army man from Himachal Pradesh ended the wait in style, but he became the first to do so outside India.

 It was a stunning effort from Sawan when he capped what had been a dream year – lowering his own national record of April with an effort of 2:11:37 seconds under a mild temperature but with wind and drizzle coming in between.  Shifting to marathon only this year after running in 5,000m, 10,000m and half marathon, Sawan immediately made an impact as he broke Shivnath Singh’s 48-year-old national record at the NN Marathon, Rotterdam with 2:11:58.

 ‘’The way I trained, the target was to finish with a medal, not to better my national record. But it was also a national record. I am very happy to have won a medal for the country, that too after a long time (1982),’’ Barwal told the media after the grueling race.

His silver is India’s first marathon Games medal after the bronze won by Hosur Kukkappa Seetharan in the 1982 edition in New Delhi. Sawan, incidentally, is the fourth Indian ever to win a marathon medal in the Asiad - with Chhota Singh and Surat Singh Mathur clinching gold and bronze, respectively, at the inaugural Games in 1951 in New Delhi.

At the halfway mark, he had moved up to second place with a timing of 1:05:54. After the 35km mark, the dye was cast as only the top three runners, including Sawan were in the front. ‘’My target was to finish in the first group up to 39-40 km. So, I was in the first group and decided to finish in the last 1-2 km. I tried to stay with the group. In the last 38-37 km, there were just three runners.

 ‘’Around 37 km, the third one (runner) fell behind,’’ he said. ‘’I tried to maintain the same pace. So, in the last 39-37 km, the Japanese were ahead. But the pace was fast, so I tried to keep up with my comfortable pace.’’

Hailing from Joginder Nagar in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, his father Kuldeep worked as a driver in New Delhi while mother Subhadra Devi is a homemaker. Sawan may have been a runner for over a decade, but his initiation happened by chance after a visit to a track near home as his elder brother was on the school’s track team.

Watching from the sidelines, he was roped in to train for 1500m at the age of 14. His first national level event was in Under-18 category in 2015, a 3000m race while the bow at senior level came in 2021 in the Federation Cup in 5000m. He won both the 5000m and 10,000m gold in the 2025 National Games in Dehradun.

Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita won the gold in 2:10:49 while China’s Peiyou Feng took bronze in 2:12:13. The other Indian in the fray, Kartik Karkera, finished 17th with a time of 2:22:41.