Came out for World Athletics Championships final thinking to qualify for the Olympics, admits Avinash Sable

Olympics bound 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable on Friday qualified for the Tokyo Olympics by shattering his own national record for the second time in three days. On Saturday, he said he was focused on qualifying for the Tokyo Games, knowing fully well that a podium finish at the World Championships in Doha was out of the question as he finished 13th in the finals.

The steeplechaser from Mandwa village in Maharashtra clocked 8:21.37 seconds to breach the Olympics qualifying standard of 8:22.00 and create a new national record. This was his fourth national record in just over 12 months. His first national record (8:29.80) was set in September last year during the National Open in Bhubaneswar after he broke a 37-year-old national record held by Gopal Saini. The second (8:25.23) came in March this year at the Federation Cup in Patiala which he followed up with a timing of 8:25.23 seconds during the first round heats on Tuesday. During this period, he made an improvement of nearly eight-and-a-half seconds.

“I would like to thank the AFI for the prompt protest. I got a lot of support from the AFI officials. After the race, they told me not to worry and I will be able to race in the finals. Ultimately, the protest was successful and I owe this result to the AFI,” he said.

Avinash said if not a medal, he will aim to finish in the top 5 or 6 in the Tokyo Olympics, for which he will now need to slice at least 12 seconds from his timing in the World Championships.