Son of a Haryana farmer Parvej Khan has shown his mettle by winning the Gold medal at the SEC championships on May 11. Parvej clinched the yellow metal in the 1500m race with a timing of 3:42.73s in Louisiana.
The 19-year-old Indian was superior to his competitors and made a late charge from behind to take the pole position in the final 100m of the 1500m race and winning by a big margin in the end. He had earlier topped the heats too and was a different beast altogether.
Parvej also bagged a Bronze medal in the 800m race after this. The Indian sprinter later opened up about his run. “1500m was easy for me. I did not give my 100 per cent in that race because I had 800m just after that. I was going at a comfort pace and only pushed in the final 200,” he told media after the race.
The sprinter was seen making gestures to the crowd in his dominant run but said it was just to ‘hype’ the crowd. “I did it for the crowd, to hype up the crowd, my intention was not bad towards my rivals, I really respect my competitors. I am not disrespecting them, I just did it for my home crowd,” he added.
Parvej dreams feature in the Olympics but feel the Paris Games might be a bit too soon for him to make a late entry. “Ya, representing India in the Paris Olympics is in my mind but you know it is very hard to qualify at 3:33, and that is very hard. I am working hard every day and executing my plans, hopefully, one day I will be in the Olympics standards,” the 19-year-old added.
Notably, Parvej is also a Gold medalist in the National Games and holds the record for being the first Indian to qualify for a track event’s final in the NCAA Championships. He was representing the University of Florida as he received a scholarship there last year.