Delighted to raise the bar again, want to win medal at World Championships: Avinash Sable

Trivandrum: Avinash Sable kept his date with record books when he shattered his own eight-month-old national record in men's 3000m steeplechase event of the Indian Grand Prix 2 at Chandrashekharan Nair stadium here on Wednesday.

National record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor in men's shot put missed the date with GPs and Tokyo Olympian finalist Kamalpreet Kaur in women's discus throw was a pale shadow of herself, but Avinash made up for all of them.

In the last of 21 events of the one-day meet witnessed by top Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials including Lalit Bhanot and former Olympians, Avinash was the first to finish clearing hurdles and water jumps with ease. In the process, he shaved off almost two seconds off his own national record of 8 minutes 18.12 seconds set during the heats in Tokyo in the Olympic Games 2020 to 8:16.21s. This is the best time currently across the world for 2022.

The performance will take the jawan of the Mahar Regiment to the 2022 World Athletics Championships to be held in Eugene, Oregon, the United States from July 15–24, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. The Worlds, to be held from August 6 to 15, 2021 was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 is scheduled to be held in China's Zhejiang province from September 10 to 25, 2022 while the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England from July 28 to August 8.

"I'm delighted to raise the bar again and I'm hungry to become the first Indian to win a medal at the Worlds and later in the Olympics. I'm getting whatever an athlete needs and provided by the (Athletics) Federation (of India) to become a world-beater which I hope to be soon. Last month Scott Simmons, a reputed American coach was appointed and the result is for all to see," said the 27-year-old from Beed district in Maharashtra, who took a creditable seventh position in Tokyo but missed the Olympics final purely due to technicality.

"AFI plans my schedule which I follow and execute religiously. I'm glad that I'm achieving whatever I have been set for," the Army man told The Bridge.

The Avinash show on Wednesday was pure delight also because his training schedule had been thrown awry because of a Covid infection.

"I should confess that my morale was down for those three post-Covid months. But I made it with a disciplined schedule and trained well and in my first meet itself I could prove I'm the best in the business," he said after breaking the record for the seventh time. Shankar Lal Swami (Haryana, 8:36.37s) and Atul Poonia (Rajasthan, 8:53.15s) were a distant second and third respectively.

Avinash joins Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, Tajinder, Kamalpreet and three walkers – Priyanka Goswami, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Kumar – to have qualified for the Oregon Worlds.

A couple of other athletes, all in triple jump – Aishwarya B of Karnataka and in the men's event Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker – also achieved the standards for the Games.

Priya Mohan continues winning spree, MP Jabir upset

In a two-woman event, Aishwarya, with an effort of 13.94m, leapt to her personal best and almost threatened to cross the 14m mark for the first time.

In men's triple jump, the fight between Abdulla Aboobacker and Eldhose Paul was witnessed keenly. Eldhose came up with a personal best effort of 16.95m to claim gold ahead of Abdulla Aboobacker's best of 16.70m. 2018 Asiad gold medallist and CWG bronze medallist Arpinder Singh was fifth.

Tajinder Toor was conspicuous by his absence despite being included in the entry list released by the organisers. So were sprinter Dutee Chand and long jumper M Sreeshankar, who all competed in the World Indoor meet which concluded at Belgrade last week. Another notable absence was 400m national record holder Muhammed Anas, who is yet to compete this season and is recovering from niggles.

In men's 400m hurdles, national champion and the first Indian to qualify for Olympics, MP Jabir, was second in a minor upset. The Navy man was competing for the first time after competing in Tokyo Games as he took four months to recover from an ankle surgery. The event was won by Santhosh Kumar T while Dharun Ayyasamy failed to start.

Olympian Kamalpreet Kaur had two throws - 60.15m on her third attempt and 61.39m in the final - past the 60m mark in six attempts.

"Oh, this is fine. These are the early days of the busy season ahead. I will also be competing in the Commonwealth Games and Asiad," said Kamalpreet on her result here, who holds the national record of 66.59m.

In women's 400m, Karnataka's Priya H Mohan's winning spree continued as she bested her state mate and experienced MR Poovamma, Jisna Mathew of Kerala and clocked 52.37 seconds, her personal best. Poovamma also made the most of the youngster's pace to clock her fastest time of 52.44s even though it was slower than her best of 52.31s set in Bydgoszcz in Poland six years ago.

Final results:

MEN

100m: Tamil Arasu (TN, 10.66s), Aswin KP (Ker, 10.70s), Ritik Malik (Delhi, 10.78s);

400m: Rajesh Ramesh (TN, 46.09s), Noah Nirmal Tom (Ker, 46.19s), Muhammed Ajmal (Ker, 46.29s); 800m: Ankesh Chaudhary (HP, 1:48.27s), Md Afsal (Ker, 1:48.65s), Krishan Kumar (Har, 1:48.66); 3000m Steeplechase: Avinash Sable (Maha, 8:16.21s New National Record. ONR 8:18.12s set on July 30, 2021, Tokyo), 2. Shankar Lal Swami (Haryana) 8:36.37s, Atul Poonia (Rajasthan) 8:53.15;

400m hurdles: T Santhosh Kumar (TN, 50.15s), MP Jabir (Ker, 50.40s), Dhaval Mahesh Utekar (Guj, 51.37s);

Triple jump: Eldhose Paul (Ker, 16.95m), Abdulla Aboobacker (Ker, 16.70m), Gaily Venister Devasahayam (TN, 16.09m);

Shot put: Aniket (Uttarakhand, 17.42m), Adhish Ghildiyal (Utta, 16.48m), Prajwal Shetty (KNK, 14.42m);

Discus throw: Prashant Malik (Har, 54.18m), Arjun (Delhi, 51.37m), Sachin Suhag (Har, 49.18).

WOMEN

100m: NS Simi (KNK, 11.79s), AT Daneshwari (KNK, 11.83s), PD Anjali (Kerala, 11.87s);

400m: Priya H Mohan (KNK, 52.37s), MR Poovamma (Karnataka) 52.44; 3. Jisna Mathew (Kerala, 53.40s);

800m: EB Arptitha (KNK, 2:11.44s), Priscilla Daniel (Ker, 2;12.47), Stephy Sara Koshy (Ker, 2:13.49s);

3000m Steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary (UP, 9:38.29s), G Maheshwari (Telangana, 10:52.49s);

400m Hurdles: Anu Raghavan (Ker, 58.53s), R Vithya Ramaraj (TN, 58.55s), Pragyan Prasanti Sahu (Odi, 59.22s).

Triple Jump: B Aishwarya (Knk, 13.94m), Karthika Gothandapani (TN, 13.08m).

Shot Put: Ramneet Kaur (Uttarakhand, 13.86m), Shilpa (Knk, 11.93m).

Discus Throw: Kamalpreet Kaur (Punjab, 61.39m), Nidhi Rani (Har, 50.96m), Sunita (Har, 47.36m).