Breaking his own 3000m steeplechase national record (NR), India’s Avinash Sable achieved a new high at the Paris Diamond League 2024 meet on Sunday (July 7). Sable clocked a timing of 8 minutes and 9.91 seconds, bettering his personal best of 8:11:20 by around one and a half second to finish sixth. (More Sports News)
The performance is significant as it comes just days before the Paris Olympic Games 2024. While the Diamond League event was held at Stade Charlety in the French capital, the track and field venue for the Olympics will be Stade de France, 20 kilometres away from Stade Charlety.
The 29-year-old Sable had notched up his previous NR at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, where he had bagged the silver medal. With that silver, he had ended Kenya's 28-year sweep of the 3000m steeplechase men's event at the CWG.
Sable earlier competed in the Portland Track Festival in the United States and the national inter-state championships in Panchkula, Haryana this season. He had finished with timings of 8:21.85 at Portland and 8:31.75 in Panchkula.
The timing at the inter-state championships last week was enough to win Sable gold, but he has considerably levelled up in the run-up to Paris Olympics. The Asian Games gold medallist had vowed to rectify mistakes that he committed in the last few years and deliver a strong show at the Paris Olympics.
“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,” Sable had said.
