3000m steeplechase national record holder Sable conquers another frontier, breaks 5000m NR

Sable, who also holds the national record in his pet event of 3000m steeplechase and competed in Tokyo Olympics, clocked 13 minutes and 25.65 seconds while finishing 12th in the American Meet.

New Delhi:Top Indian runner Avinash Sable smashed the 30-year-old men's 5000m national record at the Sound Running Track Meet at San Juan Capistrano, California in USA. Sable, who also holds the national record in his pet event of 3000m steeplechase and competed in Tokyo Olympics, clocked 13 minutes and 25.65 seconds while finishing 12th in the American Meet.

Norway's Tokyo Olympics 1500m gold winner Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the race with a timing of 13:02.03s. The 27-year-old army man, a farmer's son from Mandwa village in Beed district of Maharashtra, broke Bahadur Prasad's long-standing record of 13:29.70s set in Birmingham in 1992.

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Sable thus broke Indian athletic's second longest-standing national record. The longest-standing national record is that of Shivnath Singh in marathon (2:12:00s) which has stood for 44 years since 1978. Sable also holds the half marathon (21.0975km) national record of 1:00:30s which he had set in 2020 while winning gold in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon.

The Sound Running Track Meet is a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level event. Sable is known for breaking his own 3000m steeplechase national record multiple times. He did it for the seventh time during the Indian Grand Prix 2 in Thiruvananthapuram in March with a time of 8:16.21s.

He had also set a then national record of 8:18.12s during the Tokyo Olympics. He has already qualified for the World Championships to be held in Eugene, USA from July 15 to 24. He won a 3000m steeplechase silver in the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha.

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"We were planning Avinash to field in both 3000m steeplechase and 5000m in Asian Games as he has medal chance in both events," Indian athletics chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair told PTI. The Hangzhou Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held from September 10 to 15, were on Friday postponed indefinitely due to surging COVID-19 cases in China.

PTI