Sawan Barwal
Indian marathoner (born 1998)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sawan Barwal (born 18 February 1998)[1] is an Indian marathoner. He won the silver medal at the 2026 Asian Games.[2] He broke Shivnath Singh's 48 year old Indian National marathon record.[3][4]
Indian Army| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 18 February 1998 Radabhanker, Himachal Pradesh, India | ||||||||||||||
| Military career | |||||||||||||||
Branch | Indian Army | ||||||||||||||
Service years | 2019–present | ||||||||||||||
Rank | Havildar | ||||||||||||||
| Unit | Corps of Engineers | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
Event | Marathon | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Personal bests | 2:11:37 NR (2026) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life
Barwal is from Radabhanker village in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.[5][3] He serves in the Indian Army as havildar in the Corps of Engineers.[6] A long distance runner and half marathoner, he switched over to marathon following a suggestion from fellow Army personnel and mentor Mohammed Yunus Khan. For Asiad, he is training at the Reliance Foundation Centre, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.[7] He is coached by Ajit Markose. Earlier, he trained under Army coach Younis Khan at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.[5]
Career
Barwal broke the Indian national record on 12 April 2026 at NN Marathon Rotterdam that was held in the name of Shivnath Singh for 48 years. He clocked 2 hours, 11 minutes and 58 seconds in the elite marathon race and broke the record of 2:12:00 set by Singh in 1978 at Jalandhar, Punjab.[3][6] It was his debut marathon and he finished overall 20th. He fell down about 150 metres before the finish line but recovered to break the longest-standing Indian athletics record.[4][8][9]
In 2024, he set the National half marathon record of 1:02 in Delhi.[8] In April 2025, he won the gold in the 10,000 metre run with a meet record at the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship at Kochi to qualify for Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea in May.[10]