Parvej Khan, a gold medalist from the National Games, is making history by being the first Indian to get to the men’s one-mile finals of the US NCAA Championships. He qualified as one of the players for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field event by triumphantly finishing third place in the one-mile preliminary race, with a record of 3 minutes and 57.126 seconds.
The 19-year-old athlete was competing on behalf of the University of Florida, wherein he was granted a scholarship. Khan set a new personal record of 3.40.89 in Gandhinagar and won the 1500m gold at the 2022 National Games.
Khan – First senior race
He left home a silver medal at the 1500m National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai and another gold medal in the National Open held in Bengaluru as well.
He also competed in his first senior race in 2021 for 1500m at the National Open Championships in Warrangal, and he won gold at the U-16 Nationals in Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh in 2019 for 800m. Moreover, he won bronze at the Khelo India Youth Games (U-18) in 2020, competing in the same distance as the previous year.
Three Indian athletes namely Tejaswin Shankar for 2018 and 2022 in high jump, Mohinder Singh Gill for triple jump, and Vikas Gowda for 2006 in discus throw, have successfully bagged gold at the NCAA championships.
Unfortunately, one-mile runs are not included in the Olympics and World Championship programs, and are not very known among Indian athletes.
Cover Photo: IG
Source: Sportstar