Army man from Maharashtra clocks new Asiad time of 8:19.50 to bag India’s first athletics gold this Asian Games
Avinash Sable celebrates after winning gold, on Sunday. Pic/AFP
Maharashtra’s army man Avinash Sable, 28, dominated his way to winning India’s first athletics gold medal (steeplechase) of this Asiad, clocking a new Games Record of 8:19.50 at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre, on Sunday.
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Sable also became first Indian man to win an Asian Games 3000m steeplechase title.
Japan’s Ryoma Ayoki (8:23.75) took a distant silver, while his compatriot Seiya Sunada (8:26.47) won bronze.
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Avinash Sable celebrates after winning 3000m steeplechase gold at Hangzhou, China, yesterday. Pic/PTI
Last month, Sable had failed to qualify for the final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, finishing seventh in the heats, with a timing of 8:22.24. While he bettered that here, given his national record stands at 8:11.20 and season’s best is 8:11.63, he realised that he was way off, but insisted it’s with good reason. “After five laps, when I looked up and saw that the second guy was far away from me, I decided to slow down and take it easy. I thought since this is the last race of the season, instead of running for a better timing, I’ll run for a gold medal,” said Sable, a Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medallist, who trains at USA’s Colorado Springs under coach Scott Simon. “After what happened at the Worlds in Budapest, I was determined to win a gold here at any cost. With that target achieved, now I will work towards achieving my qualification for next year’s all-important Paris Olympics,” said Sable, with an emphatic “Jai Maharashtra” to mid-day as he ran off to get ready for the medal ceremony.
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