Fiji’s distance running prodigy Yeshnil Karan has rewritten athletics history, smashing a 54-year-old national 10,000m record with a breathtaking performance at the UniSport Australia Nationals Athletics Championships.
Competing as a guest at the prestigious inter-university event held at the Gold Coast Performance Centre on Tuesday evening, Karan clocked a sensational time of 30 minutes 19.92 seconds, crossing the finish line first and leaving an indelible mark on the track.
His time demolished the long-standing Fijian record of 31 minutes 32.00 seconds, set by the legendary Usaia Sotutu in 1971 in Provo, USA. Karan sliced a staggering 72 seconds off the previous mark, announcing his arrival as one of the Pacific’s most promising long-distance athletes.
Even more impressive, this was only Karan’s second-ever 10,000m race on the track. He obliterated his personal best of 32 minutes 32.30 seconds, recorded during his gold-medal run at the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, by a remarkable 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
Among those watching the historic race was 1976 Olympian and Fiji Sports Hall of Fame inductee Tony Moore Junior, a former teammate of Sotutu in the early 1970s. He was full of praise for the young runner, saying:
“This delightful young man is brimming with talent and potential.”
Yeshnil Karan’s feat not only cements his status as a rising star in Fijian athletics, but also serves as a generational milestone—proof that brilliance can rewrite history in just over 30 minutes.
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