Sable Hopes to Better His Best Show at the Worlds

Laid low by a combination of poor form and injuries, India's premier 3,000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable is confident to turn a corner at this year's World Championships in Tokyo (September 13-21).

- Shantanu Srivastava

BENGALURU:

The 30-year-old met the Worlds qualifying mark of 8:15.00 at last year's Paris Olympics where his 8:14.18 helped him finish eleventh. In the five races since, Sable has failed to come close to the qualification cut-off with his season's best of 8:20.92 being significantly off his personal best (8:09.91) which he achieved in Paris a month before the qualification window for the Worlds opened.

Currently training at Sports Authority of India's Bengaluru campus, the army man said he had been carrying a niggle in his right hamstring and calf since the 2023 Asian Games where he secured gold with a time of 8:19.50.

"It used to hurt while running, which greatly affected my performance. I couldn't do well at the Olympics and the injury bothered me at the twin Diamond League meets this season," Sable said, referring to his outings in Xiamen and Shanghai in April-May.