Sable qualifies for Diamond League Finals

Xiamen (China), September 2

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India’s Avinash Sable finished a creditable fifth in the men’s 3000m steeplechase event of the Diamond League’s Xiamen leg today to qualify for the Finals in Eugene, USA.

The 28-year-old, who had failed to qualify for the final round in the World Championships last month, clocked 8 minutes, 16.27 seconds, which was well below his season’s best of 8:11.63 and national record time of 8:11.20.

Olympics and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco won the race with a time of 8:10.31, while Samuel Firewu (8:11.29) of Ethiopia and Amos Serem (8:14.41) of Kenya were second and third, respectively.

Sable, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, collected four points from the race for a total of 11 points from four events this season. He qualified for the Finals for the first time. He will join Olympics and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and long jumper Murali Sreeshankar.

Will be hard to clock 2:58 at Asian Games: Amoj

New Delhi: The performance at the World Championships is a major confidence booster but replicating that at the Asian Games will be difficult given that the field will be less competitive, said Indian men’s 4x400m relay team member Amoj Jacob.

Jacob, Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh shattered the Asian record, clocking 2 minutes, 59.05 seconds to take the team to its first-ever World Championships final last week.

At the Asian Games, the quartet will be the frontrunners to win gold. “Definitely, it will be hard for us to get 2:58 because we won’t get that much challenge from anyone else at the Asian Games. Everyone will be looking at us,” Jacob said.

“I think Japan will be competitive, they have three 44-second runners. Don’t know about the timings, anything can happen on that day,” he added.

The Indian team finished fifth in the final, clocking 2:59.92. Jacob revealed the team was feeling fatigued after the heats. “Before the heats we were focussing on running in 2:58. Our coach asked to try and be in the first bunch to qualify directly. But after that race, Rajesh was puking and we were very tired,” added Jacob, who ran the fastest split in the heats.