India’s Gulveer Singh bettered his own national record in a non-Olympic event of men’s 3000m race while finishing fifth at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix in Budapest. He clocked 7 minute 34.49 seconds on Tuesday night to eclipse his own previous national record time of 7.38.26 set at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational meet in February this year.

Twenty-seven-year-old Gulveer was competing in his first track race in Europe. The meet in Budapest is a World Athletics Continental Tour gold level event, the highest in the class.

Kipsang Mathew Kipchumba of Kenya won the race with a time of 7:33.23, while Eduardo Herrera (7:33.58) of Mexico, Oscar Chelimo (7:33.93) of Uganda and Valentin Soca (7:34.28) of Uruguay were second, third and fourth, respectively. Gulveer also has national records to his name in men’s 5000m (12:59.77) and 10,000m (27:00.22). He is also the reigning Asian champion in both 5000m and 10,000m races, having won gold medals in the continental championships in May.

Gulveer has already qualified for the men’s 5000m race in the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo from September 13 to 21.