World Athletics Championships 2022: Avinash Sable qualifies for 3000m Steeplechase final for second consecutive time

Sable clocked 8 minutes and 18.75 seconds to qualify for the finals at World Athletics Championships 2022

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India's Avinash Sable clocked 8 minutes and 18.75 seconds to finish third in his heat in 3000m Steeplechase on Day 1 of the World Athletics Championships 2022 at The Hayward Field in Oregon, USA on Saturday. With this Sable qualified for the finals for the second consecutive time. After failing to qualify for the 2018 Asian Games due to an ankle injury, Sable broke the 37-year-old national record of 8:30.88 held by Gopal Saini, by clocking 8:29.80 at the 2018 National Open Championships in Bhubaneswar. He set a new national record of 8:28.94 in March 2019 at the Federation Cup in Patiala,  as a result of which he qualified for the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships and 2019 World Athletics Championships. He became the first male steeplechaser from India to qualify for the World Championships since Deena Ram (1991).

Avinash Sable finishes third in his heat with a time of 8.18.75 to qualify automatically for the final of the men's 3000m steeplechase at the World Championships. Second consecutive final at the Worlds for the Indian. pic.twitter.com/a5NORlaJk3

— jonathan selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) July 16, 2022

Sable won the silver medal at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, his debut international event, with a timing of 8:30.19. In 2019, he again broke his own national record at the World Championships where he ran 8:25.23 in the heats, despite twice being at the receiving end of Takele Nigate's accidental tripping during the race, to finish seventh in the heats and out of contention for the final. However, after a successful appeal by the Athletics Federation of India, Sable was included in the final and became the first Indian to qualify for the 3000 metres steeplechase final at the World Championships.

He further improved the national record to 8:21.37 in the final, finishing 13th out of 16 runners,and qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he was seventh in his heat, setting a new national record to 8:18.12. In 2022, Sable set 2 further national records, first at the Indian Grand Prix (8:16.21), and then at the Meeting International Mohamed VI in Rabat (8:12.48), placing 5th.