PARIS, July 7:
Avinash Sable showed that he’s peaking at the right time before the Paris Olympics as he broke his own 3000m steeplechase national record while finishing sixth at the prestigious Diamond League meet, clocking 8 minute and 9.91 seconds, here on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Sable bettered his earlier mark of 8:11.20, which he had clocked in 2022, by around one and a half seconds.
Abrham Sime of Ethiopia finished first with a personal time of 8:02.36 after a photo finish with Amos Serem (8:02.36) of Kenya.
Another Kenyan, Abraham Kibiwot, the 2023 World Championships bronze medallist and gold winner at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where Sable had won a silver, was third with a time of 8:06.70.
With this performance, Sable returned to his record-breaking ways after he smashed his own national mark two years ago while winning a silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
This was the 10th national record-breaking performance from Sable, who hails from a humble farmer’s family at Mandwa village in Beed district of Maharashtra.
He was seemingly struggling this season having run just two 3000m steeplechase races, clocking 8:21.85 at Portland and 8:31.75 in Panchkula (National Inter-State Championships), both in June.
Sable, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, thus improved by around 12 seconds from his best effort of the season.
He had, however, run at the National Inter-State Championships (June 27-30) just like a practice race.
After winning the gold at Panchkula, Sable had vowed to make amends for the mistakes he committed in the last few years and deliver a memorable show at the Paris Olympics with a different approach.
“I committed mistakes in the last two years. I had gone with good fitness in the two world championships (2022 and 2023) but could not do well at both. I want to make amends, hope that this Olympics will be my best,” he had said. (PTI)
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