Steeplechaser Avinash Sable has quickly established himself as this generation’s top long-distance runner in India since making his debut on the scene a few years ago.
Sable’s rise has been notable, especially given that he only started running as a sport in 2015.
Avinash Mukund Sable was born on September 13, 1994, in the Beed district of Maharashtra’s village of Mandwa, and was raised in a low-income family.
He had to endure many hardships because both of his parents were farmers, including running six kilometres each day to get to school because there was no public transport.
Avinash Sable never had any sporting aspirations while growing up and decided at a young age to enlist in the military in order to support his family.
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Qualifies for the Paris Olympics 2024
ACE 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable finished sixth with his second-best time in the Silesia Diamond League meet on Sunday, becoming the first Indian track athlete to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Sable, 28, finished in 8 minutes, 11 seconds, just outside of his national record of 8 minutes, 11 seconds, but significantly faster than the 8 minutes, 15 seconds required to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The qualifying period for the Olympics started on July 1, 2023, and it will last until June 30, 2024.
El Bakkali Soufiane, a Moroccan and Olympic champion, won the race in a meet-record time of 8:03.16, followed by Kenyans Abraham Kibiwot (8:08.03) and Leonard Kipkemoi Bett (8:09.45) in that order.
Sable qualified for the Paris Olympics as the first track athlete from the nation and the sixth Indian overall. He joins long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and four other Indians who have already qualified for the Paris Olympics: men’s event participants Akshadeep Singh, Vikas Singh, and Paramjeet Singh Bisht, and women’s event competitors Priyanka Goswami and Priyanka Goswami.
The long jump is a field event while the men’s and women’s race walk is a road event in the Olympics. The track is used for the 3000 m steeplechase. Sable’s third Diamond League competition of the year was this one. In terms of timing, it was also Sable’s best-ever Diamond League leg performance. He had previously placed fifth in Stockholm (8:21.88) and 10th in Rabat, Morocco, with times of 8:17.18 and 8:21.88, respectively.
He placed fifth in Rabat the previous year with a time of 8:12.48.
The World Championships will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19–27, and Sable has already qualified.
The Indian Army shaped Avinash Sable as an athlete
As a member of the 5 Mahar regiment, Avinash Sable joined the Indian army after completing his 12th-grade education. He was assigned to Siachen, Sikkim, and Rajasthan.
Avinash Sable survived two climatic extremes in his first two years of service. Rajasthan’s vast desert regions experienced temperatures as high as 50 degrees, while Siachen frequently experienced negative temperatures.
After enrolling in the army’s athletics programme, Avinash Sable didn’t learn anything about sports running until 2015. He was initially selected for the cross-country competitions, and it wasn’t long before his talent became clear.
Sable, an Indian athlete who had only been training for a year, competed in the individual National Cross Country Championship and was a member of the Services team that won the team competition.
Avinash Sable, on the other hand, sustained an injury and gained a lot of weight due to his lack of training. He was written off by some soldiers, but that only fueled his ambition.
The 24-year-old quickly shed more than 15 kilogrammes and resumed running. He was given the opportunity to try out the steeplechase division after army coach Amrish Kumar noticed his intensity during one of the races in 2017.
“Because he is from a rural area, he had strength and endurance. He excelled at cross-country, so when I noticed his jumps during practice, we decided to switch him to steeplechase, according to Amrish Kumar.
It goes without saying that the choice was fantastic for Avinash Sable and Indian athletics.
Avinash Sable’s Constant Rise
Avinash Sable started off strong, placing fifth at the 2017 Federation Cup. Later that year, at the Open Nationals in Chennai, he was just nine seconds off the steeplechase national record.
But as he gradually got closer to the record, the critics reappeared.
The steeplechase is a highly strategic competition. Therefore, I frequently heard that it was impossible to break this record in India because nobody is capable of setting that kind of pace there. I had to pace myself as a result, Sable said to the press.
Even though he had already disproved his detractors the previous time they had challenged him, this time was more difficult. Avinash Sable failed to qualify for the year’s Asian Games after breaking his ankle while training in the early months of 2018. He then tried to return to running too quickly.
He quickly recovered, though, and succeeded in his endeavour. Avinash Sable broke the 30-year-old national record in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2018 Open Nationals in Bhubaneswar with a time of 8:29.88. Gopal Saini set the previous record in 1981 at the Asian Championships in Tokyo.
Road to Paris 2024 Olympics
However, not everything was rosy for the army havaldar. The strict training regimen of Russian coach Nikolai Snesarev did not fit Avinash Sable’s personality, and he briefly considered quitting running.
Avinash books 🎟 to #Paris2024
Congratulations to #TOPScheme athlete @avinash3000m on qualifying for the Paris Olympics with a season-best timing of 8:11.63 and for credible 6th place finish in Men's 3000m steeplechase at Silesia Diamond League 👏👏
Truly a commendable result… pic.twitter.com/4V9vP6hqSU
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) July 16, 2023
Sable persisted though, and in the end, broke off her relationship with Snesarev in order to reunite with Amrish Kumar. To gradually pick up speed, the pair focused on strength training and trained in various climates.
At the Federation Cup in Patiala in 2019, Sable finally broke the national record a second time by clocking an almost-second-faster time than his previous record—8:28.94.
Additionally, it allowed him to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, making him the first Indian man to compete in the steeplechase since Deena Ram did so in 1991.
Avinash Sable took home a silver medal in April 2021 from the Asian Athletics Championships, which were held in Doha as well. He was making his international stage debut at the time.
However, Avinash Sable broke his own national record twice at the 2019 Doha Worlds, cementing his place in Indian athletics lore. He broke his national record by three seconds in the heats, but it wasn’t without controversy.
His obstruction by a fellow runner prevented him from initially qualifying for the final, but the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) successfully appealed this decision, allowing him to move on to the next round.
The soldier qualified for Tokyo 2020 by placing 13th in the final in a time of 8:21.37, which again broke the previous national record. Since Gulzara Singh Mann in 1952, Avinash Sable is the first Indian to qualify for the steeplechase event at the Olympics.
Avinash Sable narrowly missed qualifying for the finals at his first Summer Games even though he improved his national record yet again in the heats at Tokyo 2020.
Avinash Sable’s records
Avinash Sable hasn’t even slowed down a bit since realising his Olympic dreams.
The most recent time and current national record for men’s 3000m steeplechase belong to Avinash Sable, who ran 8:11.20 in Birmingham, England, to win the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He had surpassed the national average three times in the previous five months.
The Indian runner finished Birmingham 2022 just 0.05s behind Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot, who won the gold medal. Furthermore, Sable prevented the dominant Kenyan team from sweeping the podium at the Commonwealth Games for the first time since Canada’s Graeme Vincent Fell (at Victoria 1994). Additionally, India won its first steeplechase medal at the CWG with a silver.
The Indian superstar has begun to establish new records in a variety of long-distance running events in addition to his favourite one.
When Avinash Sable ran the men’s 5000m in only his second race at the Sound Running Track Meet in San Juan Capistrano, California, in 2022, he broke a 30-year-old national record with a time of 13:25.65s. He surpassed Bahadur Singh’s 13:29.70 record from Birmingham in 1992. Sable improved the time in 2023 to 13:19.30s at the LA Sound Running On Track Fest.
Due to his time of 1:00:30 at the Delhi Half Marathon in 2020, he is also the current holder of the national half marathon record. The only Indian to date to complete a half-marathon in under 61 minutes is Avinash Sable.
Avinash Sable’s achievements and personal bests
- National record: 3000m steeplechase – 8:11.20
- National record: 5000m – 13:19.30s
- National record: Half marathon – 1:00:30s
- Silver medal: Doha 2019 Asian athletics championships – 3000m steeplechase
- Silver medal: Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
- Arjuna Award: India’s second-highest award for sportspersons – in 2022
- Broke the 3000m steeplechase national record seven consecutive times
- First Indian to qualify for Olympics in 3000m steeplechase in 68 years
Progression of Avinash Sable’s 3000m steeplechase national record
| September 28, 2018 | Federation Cup | 8:29.80 |
| March 18, 2019 | Federation Cup | 8:28.94 |
| October 1, 2019 | World Championships | 8:25.23 |
| October 4, 2019 | World Championships | 8:21.37 |
| March 17, 2021 | Federation Cup | 8:20.20 |
| July 30, 2021 | Tokyo Olympics | 8:18.12 |
| March 23, 2022 | Indian Grand Prix | 8:16.21 |
| June 5, 2022 | Rabat Diamond League | 8:12.48 |
| August 6, 2022 | Birmingham Commonwealth Games | 8:11.20 |
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