Handal Roban lowers national 800m all-time record

Nine and half months after setting the fastest time ever run by a Vincentian male athlete in the 800 meters, Handal Roban has reset the St Vincent and the Grenadines all- time record.

He delivered a 1:45.95 clocking and a bronze medal at the National Collegiate Athletic Association- NCAA final last Friday night, June 9, at the Mike .A . Meyers Stadium in Austin, Texas, USA.

In the process he lowered his, and the country’s previous best of 1:47.03, achieved last August, when he took silver at the NACAC Open Championships in Freeport, The Bahamas.

But last Friday’s sub 1:46 timing was also the fourth fastest for Penn State University, where Roban was enrolled last September.

Relatedly, Roban is the first for Penn State University to earn a First Team All -America recognition since Isaiah Harris did so in 2018, and emulated Harris by medalling in both indoor as well as outdoor in the same year of the NCAA Championships.

Roban began to leave a mark on the NCAA landscape, when on March 11, he gained a bronze in the NCAA Indoor finals, with a 1:47.28 clocking at the meet held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That effort earned him the top freshman accolade on the NCAA circuit.

Then on May 14, at the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Indiana, USA, he got his first NCAA outdoor medal, placing third with a 1:47.59 timing.

All along, Roban also reeled off performances that impacted St Vincent and the Grenadines’ record.

Roban established the national record in the 1000 meters at the Nittany Lion Challenge on January 14, with a 2:24.08 clocking.

Two weeks later, on January 28, at the Penn State National Open, his 1:16.91 in the 600 meters Indoor finals, established a St Vincent and the Grenadines record.

He followed up on February 4, at the Skyes & Sabock Invitational setting a 1:47.01 time that erased the long standing 1:48.58 in the 800 meters, done by Eversley Linley, back in 1992.

Set apart, Roban is the national Under-20 male record holder in the 800 meters and the 1500 meters.