Avinash Sable has became the first Indian track athlete to qualify for the upcoming Paris Olympics after his recent exploits in the Silesia Diamond League meet. Sable finished sixth riding on his second career-best time to make a cut for the upcoming Olympics which is slate to take place next year.
The 28-year-old clocked 8 minutes and 11:63 seconds, just outside his national record time of 8:11.20, but that breached the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 8:15.00 by a fair margin. The Olympics qualification period began on July 1, 2023 and will continue till June 30, 2024.
Moroccan world and Olympic champion El Bakkali Soufiane won the race in meet record time 8:03.16 while Kenyans Abraham Kibiwot (8:08.03) and Leonard Kipkemoi Bett (8:09.45) finished second and third respectively.
Sable became the sixth Indian and first track athlete from the country to qualify for the Paris Olympics. He joined four 20km race walkers -- Akashdeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht in men's event and Priyanka Goswami in women's event -- and long jumper Murali Sreeshankar in the list of Indians who have qualified for the Paris Olympics so far.
While race walking and long jump are road and field events respectively, the 3000m steeplechase is a track event. This marks Sable's third Diamond League meet of the year, and it stands as his best-ever performance in a Diamond League leg in terms of timing.
In previous Diamond League events this year, Sable finished 10th in Rabat, Morocco, with a time of 8:17.18, and secured fifth place in Stockholm, clocking 8:21.88. Last year, he recorded a time of 8:12.48 to finish fifth in Rabat. Notably, Sable has already qualified for the World Championships, which will take place from August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.
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