We don’t want to limit ourselves but first target is Olympics qualifications, says Amrish Kumar Adhana
Steeplechaser Avinash Sable will target the Olympics qualification mark first as a medal is almost out of sight when he runs in the World Athletics Final. He bettered his own national record clocking in at 8 minutes 25.23 seconds in the first round heat and qualified for the finals dramatically.
The 3000m steeplechaser, who became the first Indian track male athlete to reach World Athletics final in Doha on Tuesday, is aiming to qualify for the Tokyo Games when he runs in the final on Friday. He bettered the national record by finishing the race in 8:25.23 mins and initially failed to qualify for the finals as he was twice blocked by Ethiopian runner Takele Nigate in the heats and finished seventh. The world body decided to include Sable in the final as the 16th participant after they reviewed the Athletics Federation of India's protest.
Amrish Kumar Adhana, Sable’s coach, who is in Doha with the latter, said his ward's first target is the Olympic qualifying mark of 8:22 mins. "We don't want to limit ourselves by saying the medal is not in our reach. We will, of course, aim for a medal finish, but Avinash's first target will be to qualify for Tokyo," Adhana, who trains Sable at the Army Sports Institute, told Times Of India.
The medal, however, is improbable because Sable will be competing against runners whose personal bests are almost 25 seconds less than the Indian's. Morocco's 23-year-old Soufiane El Bakkali, who will be running in the final, has a personal best timing of 7:58.15 mins. "Avinash could have qualified in the heats itself, but the Ethiopian deliberately blocked him twice," the coach added.
The 25-year-old Sable lacks the experience of running at an event of this level but Adhana said they will go into the final with a better plan in place.
"On Tuesday, we had decided to run with the tail and later pace up, but we didn't realise that the pacemakers can create trouble if we run at the back. In the final, we have decided that Avinash will run with the middle pack instead of the back," Adhana said.
The Maharashtra runner broke Gopal Saini's 37-year-old national record of 8:30.88 mins last year by running 8:29.80 mins at the 2018 National Open Championships in Bhubaneswar. He bettered his own record in March this year by clocking 8:28.84m at the Federation Cup in Patiala.
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