Federation Cup | Sable betters his own National steeplechase record

Avinash Sable has made a habit of breaking his own records and setting new benchmarks.

In the Federation Cup on Wednesday, the steeplechaser set yet another National record, his fifth in three years, while also breaching the Olympic qualification mark, also for the second time.

Sable clocked 8:20.20, more than a second off his 2019 National mark. It started with breaking Gopal Saini’s long-standing mark in 2018 and since then, Sable has only gotten better.

“I know I have to compete against myself and it is difficult but not impossible.

“I set a target before every event and train accordingly, depending on my fitness.

“Competing internationally helps because you get pushed to do better,” Sable admitted.

Neeraj Chopra, meanwhile bettered his own meet record by almost two metres with a best throw of 87.80m but fell short of a new National mark. With nothing at stake here, however, Chopra could afford to use the event as more of a tune-up. It was still better than the Tokyo entry standard.

The other big hope for Olympics, shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, could only manage a best throw of 20.58m, good enough to winbut way off the qualifying mark of 21.10m.

The results: Men: 110m hurdles: 1. P. Veeramani (TN, 14.57s), 2. Srikanth Madhya CP (Kar, 14.85), 3. Yashwant Kumar (AP, 15.01); 10000m: 1. Abhishek Pal (UP, 29:47.49), 2. Kartik Kumar (UP, 29:48.21), 3. Arjun Kumar (UP, 29:49.46); 3000m steeplechase: 1. Avinash Sable (Mah, 8:20.20), 2. Shankar Lal Swami (Har, 8:34.33), 3. Rajkumar (Har, 8:49.96); High jump: 1. Sarvesh Kushare (Mah, 2.15m), 2. Aadarsh Ram (TN, 2.10m), 3. Geo Jos (Ker, 2.10m);