Paris 2024 Olympics: Avinash Sable qualifies for 3000m steeplechase final

India’s Avinash Sable finished fifth in his heat to qualify for the men’s 3000m steeplechase final at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday.

At the Stade de France, Sable clocked 8:15.43 to finish fifth in the second heat of the track athletics event. The top five athletes from each heat made it to the final.

The men’s 3000m steeplechase final is scheduled for August 8 and will take place at the same venue.

Sable took the early lead of the race and led for the first two and a half minutes before Abraham Kiwiot of Kenya and Samuel Firewu of Ethiopia took command.

At the halfway point, the Indian steeplechase runner was overtaken by Ryuji Miyura of Japan and occupied fourth place.

Sable climbed to second place after six minutes but a poor water jump saw him drifting to fifth shortly before climbing back to third. After seven and a half minutes, Sable dropped to fifth.

In the final stretch, he had the luxury of slowing down given the considerable distance from the trailing athletes and made the Olympic final for the first time in his career.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Sable failed to qualify after finishing seventh in his heats but was the fastest non-qualifier across all heats.

The 29-year-old Sable is the Indian national record holder in this event and clocked 8:09.91 to finish sixth at the Paris Diamond League meeting in July this year.

He had qualified for Paris 2024 by meeting the direct entry standard of 8:15.00. Sable achieved qualification when he finished sixth at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland with a time of 8:11.63 in 2023.

Meanwhile, quartermiler Kiran Pahal finished seventh in her heat in the women’s 400m event, clocking 52.51 seconds. With only the top three athletes advancing to the semi-final, she will be involved in the repechage round which takes place on Tuesday.

The woman who tops each repechage heat as well as the two fastest athletes will join the semi-finals. The 24-year-old Pahal has a personal best of 50.92 in this event, which she achieved at the Indian Championships in June this year.