India's national record holder Avinash Sable finished 11th in the Men's 3000m steeplechase final on Day 4 of the ongoing World Athletics Championships 2022 at Oregan, USA, on Tuesday (July 19).
The 27-year-old clocked 8:31.75s, which was far below his personal best of best of 8:12.48, which is a national record while Olympic Champion Soufiane El Bakkali claimed gold with a time of 8:25.13s. Laecha Girmia of Ethiopia won silver, while Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya rounded off the podium with the bronze medal.
He had qualified for the final after finishing third in heat number 3 and seventh overall with a time of 8:18.75.
Sable had finished 13th in the last edition of the championships in Doha in 2019 with the then national record time of 8:21.37.
Sable has been on a national record breaking spree in recent times. His latest best was 8:12.48 when he finished fifth at the prestigious Diamond League Meeting in Rabat last month.
This was Sable’s second successive final appearance at the Worlds. Sable had also qualified for the 2019 World Championships final in Doha, where he had finished 13th.
Earlier, Sable had qualified for the finals of the 3000m steeplechase event finishing his heats in the third position with a time of 8:18.75s. Sable’s finish seventh overall in the qualifying round as Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, the reigning Olympic Champion, finishing on top after clocking 8:16.65.
The 27-year-old soldier from the Mahar regiment, who comes from a humble family based out of Beed district of Maharashtra came into the World Athletics Championships shattered his own 3000m steeplechase national record for the eighth time in June earlier this year.
Sable finished fifth at the Diamond League Meet, which has participation by invitation only, and clocked 8:12.48 to shave off more than three seconds of his previous national record - 8:16.21, which he had managed at the Indian Grand Prix in Thiruvananthapuram back in March and 1 shopping 17 seconds better than the first time he broke the national record in 2018.
