Avinash Sable - Present perfect for India’s steeplechase champion

Since bursting onto the scene a few years back, steeplechaser Avinash Sable has fast established himself as India’s premier long distance runner of this generation.

Sable's rise has been a noteworthy one, considering he took up running as a sport only in 2015.

Born on September 13, 1994, in the village of Mandwa in Maharashtra’s Beed district, Avinash Mukund Sable grew up in a family of modest means.

Both his parents were farmers and he went through a lot of hardships, even having to run six kilometres each day to reach his school as public transportation was not available.

Avinash Sable never harboured any sporting ambitions growing up and made up his mind early to join the army in order to provide for his family.

How the Indian Army shaped Avinash Sable as an athlete

Avinash Sable was recruited in the Indian army after finishing his 12th grade and was part of the 5 Mahar regiment. He was posted at Siachen, Rajasthan and Sikkim.

Within his first two years of service, Avinash Sable survived two climatic extremes. While Siachen's temperatures dipped in the negatives regularly, Rajasthan’s desert swathes took it up to 50 degrees.

It was only in 2015 that Avinash Sable learnt anything about sports running, having joined the army’s athletics programme. He was initially chosen for the cross country competitions and his talent soon became apparent.

The Indian athlete had only trained for a year before Sable was part of the Services side that won the team competition and finished fifth in the individual National Cross Country Championship.

However, Avinash Sable suffered an injury and the lack of training saw him put on a lot of weight. Some people in the army wrote him off but that only served as fuel for his ambition.

The then 24-year-old soon lost more than 15 kilos and started running again. During one of the races in 2017, army coach Amrish Kumar noticed his intensity and invited him to try out the steeplechase category.

“He had strength and endurance as he is from a rural area. He was very good at cross-country and when I saw his jumps in training, we decided to move him to steeplechase,” Amrish Kumar told Scroll.in.

Needless to say, the decision worked wonders for both Avinash Sable and Indian athletics.

Avinash Sable's steady rise

Avinash Sable shone immediately, finishing fifth at the 2017 Federation Cup and then was only nine seconds off the 3000m steeplechase national record at the Open Nationals in Chennai later in the year.

But as he began to close in on the record gradually, the detractors cropped up again.

“The steeplechase is a very tactical race. So most times, I was told it was not possible to break this record in India because there is no one who can set that kind of pace in India. So I had to set the pace for myself too,” Sable told ESPN.

While he had already proved his critics wrong the last time they questioned him, this time it was more of a challenge. Avinash Sable broke his ankle during training in early 2018 and attempted to rush back to running, resulting in him failing to qualify for the year’s Asian Games.

However, he bounced back soon and achieved his goal. At the 2018 Open Nationals in Bhubaneswar, Avinash Sable clocked 8:29.88 in the 3000m steeplechase, breaking the 30-year national record by 0.12 seconds. The previous mark was set by Gopal Saini in 1981 at the Asian Championships in Tokyo.

Not all was rosy for the army havaldar though. The rigorous methods of Russian coach Nikolai Snesarev did not suit Avinash Sable’s style and he considered giving up running briefly.

However, Sable persevered and instead severed ties with Snesarev and reunited with a familiar face in Amrish Kumar. The pair worked on strength training and trained at different climes to slowly gather more pace.

It culminated in Sable breaking the national record for a second time at the Federation Cup in Patiala in 2019, clocking 8:28.94, almost a second faster than his previous record.

It also enabled him to run at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, making him the first Indian male steeplechaser since Deena Ram in 1991 to run at the worlds.

In April, Avinash Sable won a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships, also in Doha. It was his debut run on the international stage.

However, it was at the 2019 Doha worlds where Avinash Sable became a part of Indian athletics folklore as he broke his own national record twice. In the heats, he ran three seconds faster than his national record time but it came with controversy.

He had initially not qualified for the final but the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) successfully appealed his obstruction by a fellow runner which allowed him to enter the last stage.

The army man finished 13th in the final with a time of 8:21.37 to better the national record once again and consequently qualified for Tokyo 2020. With it, Avinash Sable became the first Indian to qualify in the steeplechase event at the Olympics since Gulzara Singh Mann in 1952.

Despite bettering his national record yet again in the heats at Tokyo 2020, Avinash Sable narrowly failed to make the finals at his debut Summer Games.

Avinash Sable's records

Achieving his dreams of becoming an Olympian hasn’t slowed down Avinash Sable even slightly.

Avinash Sable’s most recent mark and the standing men’s 3000m steeplechase national record is an 8:09.91 run he recorded at the Paris Diamond League in 2024. His previous best was 8:11.20, recorded at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham to win the silver medal.

At Birmingham 2022, the Indian runner was just 0.05s slower than Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot, who clinched gold. What’s more, Sable became the first athlete since Canada’s Graeme Vincent Fell (at Victoria 1994) to deny the mighty Kenyans a podium clean sweep at the Commonwealth Games. The silver was also India’s first-ever steeplechase medal at the CWG.

Avinash Sable also enjoyed a fantastic 2023 season with multiple stellar performances in the Diamond League series. An 8:11.63 run at the Silesia Diamond League saw him breach the men's 3000m steeplechase qualifying standard for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Despite qualifying for the Diamond League Finals in Eugene, Avinash Sable decided to skip the meet in order to focus on the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, where he won the gold medal by dominating the race with a new Games record timing of 8:19.50.

In addition to his pet event, the Indian ace has also started setting new milestones in other long distance running disciplines as well.

Avinash Sable broke a 30-year-old national record in the men's 5000m in only his second race when he clocked 13:25.65s at the Sound Running Track Meet in San Juan Capistrano, USA in 2022. The previous mark of 13:29.70 set by Bahadur Singh in Birmingham in 1992. In 2023, Sable bettered the mark to 13:19.30s at the Sound Running On Track Fest in LA.

The Indian runner clocked an impressive 13:21.09 to win the men's 5000m silver medal at Hangzhou 2023. It took a Games record-setting performance by Bahrain's Birhanu Balew to deny Avinash Sable the gold.

The 5000m national record was eclipsed by Gulveer Singh in June 2024, when he clocked 13:18.92 in Portland, USA.

Avinash Sable also holds the half marathon national record, courtesy his 1:00:30s run at the Delhi Half Marathon in 2020. He is the only Indian to date to finish half a marathon in less than 61 minutes.

Avinash Sable achievements and personal bests

• National record in men's 3000m steeplechase - 8:09.91
• National record in men's half marathon - 1:00:30s
• Personal best in men's 5000m - 13:19.30s
• Asian Games record in men's 3000m steeplechase - 8:19.50
• Silver medal in men's 3000m steeplechase - Doha 2019 Asian Athletics Championships
• Silver medal in men's 3000m steeplechase - Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
• Gold medal in men's 3000m steeplechase - Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games
• Silver medal in men's 5000m - Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games
• Arjuna Award - India’s second-highest award for sportspersons - in 2022
• Broke the 3000m steeplechase national record seven consecutive times
• First Indian to qualify for Olympics in 3000m steeplechase in 68 years

Avinash Sable's 3000m steeplechase national record progression