Indian steeple chaser Avinash Sable got his season off to the best possible start, winning the Indian Grand Prix 2 in Thiruvananthapuram with 2022's world leading time and a new national record of 8.16.21 on Wednesday.
Sable was competing for the first time since the heats of the 3000m steeplechase event at the Tokyo Olympics on July 30 last year. The 27-year-old from Beed, Maharashtra had set a national record of 8.18.12 in Tokyo as well.
Sable's timing was remarkable not just since it was his first race of the season, but also because he had no real competition. Setting the pace himself for the duration of the race, Sable was well ahead of second place finisher Shankar Lal Swami who clocked 8.36.37.
His mark in Thiruvananthapuram was the seventh time he's set a national record in this event. The 27-year-old had written the record in his name for the very first time back in September 2018. Competing at the Open National Athletics Championships at Bhubaneshwar, he had clocked 8.29.88 to erase one of the longest standing national records - Gopal Saini's mark of 8.30 that had stood for 37 years at that point. That initial record had marked Sable out as one of India's most promising athletes on the track.
Incidentally, it came just three years after he had started competing in athletics. Until then he had been a sepoy (private) in the 5 Mahar battalion of the Indian Army who had soldiered in the icy heights of the Siachen Glacier, the mountains of Sikkim, and the blistering deserts of Rajasthan. It was partly to escape the rigours of military duty that Sable shifted to the track. Although he had to first lose nearly 16 kilos, the running he had done as a child in Beed, had served to condition him to the challenges of distance running. His natural talent was obvious and Sable eventually earned a place in the Services cross-country team whom he helped to the first place in the national cross-country championships of 2017.
Sable has come a long way since those early days. He's steadily improved his timing with almost every race he's competed in, standing out among other Indian athletes with his ability to record personal bests even when competing at an elite level. He set a national record to qualify for the final of the 2019 World Championships, and then further improved that timing in the final to qualify for the Olympics.
While Sable had improved his timing with a national record at the Tokyo Games, he had been bitterly disappointed as he had finished just one spot outside the Olympic final. The mark Sable set on Wednesday would have been more than enough to qualify for the final in Tokyo. It's one that suggests that the 27-year-old has even more to offer going ahead in the season, which includes the World Championships.