Avinash Sable enters finals in World Athletics Championships; Murali Sreeshankar creates history

Sable has reached the second consecutive final, clocking 8:18.75 in his heat. On the other hand, Sreeshankar reached the final of the men’s long jump after the best jump of 8 m, becoming the first Indian men to do so in the long jump

India’s Avinash Sable competes in the 3000m steeplechase event at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, Saturday, July 16, 2022. Sable qualified for the final of the event. Pic/ PTI

Athletes Avinash Sable and Murali Sreeshankar qualified for the finals of 3000 m steeplechase and men’s long jump events respectively at the World Athletics Championships being held in Oregon today. 

With this, Sable has reached the second consecutive final, clocking 8:18.75 in his heat. On the other hand, Sreeshankar reached the final of the men’s long jump after the best jump of 8 m, becoming the first Indian men to do so in the long jump. Avinash could not qualify for Asian Games 2018 due to an ankle injury. 

He later went on to break the 37-year-old national record of 8:30.88 held by Gopal Saini, by clocking 8:29.80 at the 2018 National Open Championships held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Then he followed it with another new national record at the Federation Cup in Patiala in March 2019, where he clocked 8:28.94. With this, he earned his qualification for the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships and 2019 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first male-male steeplechaser from India to qualify for the World Championships since Deena Ram did it back in 1991. 

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He won a silver at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha in his debut international event, with timing of 8:30.19. He broke his own national record in World Championships, running 8:25.23 in the heats. 

After being at receiving end of Takele Nigate’s accidental tripping in the race, he finished seventh in heats and out of contention for finals. After a successful appeal by the Athletics Federation of India, he was included in the finals, becoming the first Indian to do so. He made improvement in the final by clocking 8:21.37 in the final, breaking his own national record and finished 13th out of 16 runners. 

Sable earned his qualification for 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he finished seventh in the heats and set a new national record of 8:18.12. His most recent national record was at Meeting International Mohamed VI in Rabat, where he clocked 8:12.48 and finished fifth.

On the other hand, Murali became the first Indian male long jumper to qualify for the finals of his Long Jump event. He had the best jump of 8 m, to finish second in qualification round Group B and seventh overall.

Anju Bobby George on the other hand was first Indian long jumper to make it to the finals of the long jump event and won a bronze medal back in 2003 in Paris, becoming the first Indian to do so. The other two Indians named Jeswin Aldrin and Muhammed Anees Yahiya failed to qualify for the final. They finished at the ninth and 11th group A qualification round and had best jumps of 7.79 m and 7.73 m respectively.

Sreeshankar could not touch the automatic qualification mark of 8.15 m but made it to the finals nonetheless as one of the best twelve performers. Only Japan’s Yuki Hashioka (8.18 m) and USA’s Marquis Dendy (8.16 m) could cross the 8.15 mark in the qualification round.

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