Surendra Singh submerges 32-year-old record of 10000m

London, Jun 15 (UNI) Long distance runner Surendra Singh rewrote the 32-year-old national record in the 10000m by clocking a timing of 28:22.79s at the Nike BMC Grand Prix at Watford here.

The previous mark of 28:48.72s was set by distinguished athlete Hari Chand at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

Surendra also bettered his personal best by more than 30 seconds.

This was the second record which has been broken by Surendra Singh in a span of 10 days.

The Services athlete was competing in the UK Olympic trials for 10000m organised by the British Milers Club as Nike BMC Grand Prix at Watford here.

He exploited the perfect weather conditions with an average of 2min 52sec per kilometer till 9km mark and surged ahead in the final kilometer which he completed in 2min 49sec.

However, the 30-year-old Indian army man failed to breach the Olympic qualifying mark but it does not rule out the credit due to him for the best run by any Indian in the history of Indian athletics. Teammate Sandip Kumar finished 4th with a new personal best of 29:17.97s.

Inspired by Surendra's run, Preeja Sreedharan, current Indian record holder in 10000m too put up an amazing performance in the women's 10000m run to finish second behind Jo Pavey with a new national record timing of 32:04.41s sliced more than 1 minute from her previous record of 33:19.71s set in Kolkata on May 13, 2007.

Preeja became the first Indian women 10000m runner to meet ''B'' qualifying norms for Bejing Olympics.

Rajeev Ramesan clocked his personal best in 800m with a timing of 1:47.20s to win overall 800m run while Sajeesh Joseph grabbed 2nd place in 1:47.67s.

The Indian team will come back to Watford on June 18 to take part in BMC Gold Races.

Indian athletes have set 3 national records after arriving here.

Team India is training at Newham Sports Academy run by Olympic gold medalist Tessa Sanderson, OBE at Newham, host borough of London 2012 Olympics.

Results: Men: 800M : 1 Rajeev Ramesan, (IND) 1:47.20s; 2 Sajeesh Joseph (IND) 1:47.67s; 3 David Mccarthy (IRELAND) 1:47.96s; 1500m B: 3 Paritam Bind (India) 3:42.91s; 5 Ravinder (IND) 3:43.83s; 10000m : 1 Surender Singh (IND) 28:22.79s NR; 2 Antony Ford ( Blackpool Wyre and Fylde) 28:30.39s; 3 Phil Nicholls (TIPTON) 28:54.95s 4 Sandip Kumar (IND) 29:17.97s Women: 800m : 8. Sushma Devi (IND) 02:05.90s 1500m : 1 Deirdre Byrne (IRELAND) 4:10.92s, 2 Sinimole Paulose (IND) 4:13.15s, 3 Emma Pallant (ENG) 4:13.76s; 10000m:1 Jo Pavey ( Exeter) 31:56.90s; 2 Preeja Sreedharan (IND) 32:04.41s NR; 3 Hayley Yelling ( Windsoe Sloguh) 32:39.80s UNI XC RKM AB CS1546