Indian long-distance running stands at a decisive moment, and at the centre of it is Gulveer Singh, the national record holder who will line up at the ASICS Sound Invite on February 14, 2026, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
This is not just another overseas race. It is a carefully chosen battlefield where India’s best distance runner will attempt to validate his growing global reputation against the deepest indoor fields in the world.
The Sound Invite is classified as a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, which makes it strategically crucial. While Gold meetings offer wildcards to the World Indoor Championships, Silver meets provide a higher “return on investment” for ranking points, especially for athletes outside the very top tier of the world rankings. For Gulveer, currently ranked among the world’s elite in long distance, a strong performance here can dramatically strengthen his qualification pathway to the 2026 World Indoor Championships in Toruń.
Why the Sound Invite is built for records
Sound Running, the organisers, have redefined how elite track meets are staged in North America. Their philosophy is simple: remove every variable that prevents fast times. They use professional pacers, precise scheduling, and Wavelight LED pacing technology, which runs along the inside rail of the track at a programmed speed. Instead of constantly calculating splits, runners simply “chase the light,” which reduces cognitive load and promotes more efficient running.
The venue, JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, is also a major advantage. It features a banked 200-metre Mondotrack, the same surface specification used at Paris 2024. Banked turns reduce braking forces, while Mondotrack returns more energy with each stride. In practical terms, this combination is estimated to be 1–2 percent faster than traditional tracks, a significant margin in events decided by fractions of a second.
Gulveer’s historic profile
Gulveer arrives in the United States carrying one of the most remarkable résumés in Asian distance running. In February 2025, he became the first Asian man to run under 13 minutes indoors for 5000m, clocking 12:59.77 in Boston. That race alone elevated him from regional star to global contender. He also owns the Indian national records in 10,000m (27:00.22) and 3000m (7:34.49 outdoors, 7:38.26 indoors), a rare blend of endurance and speed that gives him tactical flexibility in fast races.
His recent 40th-place finish at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee earlier this month is also more significant than it appears. Competing against East African powerhouses over a brutal 10 km course confirmed that his aerobic engine remains robust. The five-week gap between World XC and the Sound Invite is being used as a special preparation phase, where endurance from cross-country is converted into track-specific speed through 400-metre and 1000-metre intervals before a final taper.
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The Sound Invite could place Gulveer in either the 3000m or the 5000m, and both carry record-breaking possibilities.
If it is the 3000m, the target is to attack his own national record of 7:34.49. That requires an average pace of 60.5 seconds per 400m, or 30.25 seconds per 200m lap on the indoor oval. The race plan is straightforward but unforgiving: fight for the rail early, sit just behind the pacer and any headline athletes, stay relaxed through the middle laps, and then unleash his 1500m-derived speed over the final two laps .
If it is the 5000m, the objective is even more symbolic: validate the sub-13 performance of 2025. That means running 25 laps at 31.15 seconds per lap, a test of both aerobic efficiency and mental focus. Indoor 5000m races are notoriously difficult because of lapped traffic and the monotony of repeated turns, which is why Wavelight and professional pacing are critical here.
One of the headline names expected at the Sound Invite is Cole Hocker, the Paris 2024 Olympic 1500m champion. His presence changes everything. Hocker is lethal in slow races because of his closing speed, so any field that includes him is forced to run fast from the gun. For Gulveer, that is actually an advantage. He does not need to beat Hocker to have a successful race; he needs to let Hocker drag the pace to record-breaking levels and then ride that wave to his own historic times .
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Gulveer Singh is not an isolated phenomenon. He represents the next wave of Indian athletics, following the breakthroughs of Neeraj Chopra and Avinash Sable. Indian distance running has moved from high-volume, low-intensity training to modern polarised models, combined with global exposure in places like the United States, Kenya and Europe. Gulveer’s February campaign in America is a direct product of this shift .
More importantly, every time he races in fields like the Sound Invite, he is normalising the presence of Indian runners at the sharp end of global distance running. This is not just about medals; it is about rewriting what is considered possible for athletes from India.
On February 14, the lights, the track and the competition will all align for one purpose: to see how far Gulveer Singh can push the limits of Indian distance running. Whatever the final time, the Sound Invite will mark another decisive step in a historic ascent that is only just beginning.
