Avinash Sable | The serial record-breaker with a monk’s calmness

Steeplechaser Avinash Sable has experienced the highs and braved the lows, transforming into a runner with a single-minded focus on performance. He may not be the poster boy of Indian athletics yet, but he is one of the country’s few genuine medal prospects on the world stage

For someone who has made breaking records seem like an everyday affair, it is difficult to believe Avinash Sable once had doubts about whether he would ever be competitive within the country — at that point, the world stage was a dream too far.

It’s a good thing he was talked out of his doubts in July 2017. For, over the next year, the 3000m steeplechaser experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, becoming a man focused on performances and records to the point of obsession, with all the calmness of a monk. This has made him one of the few Indian track athletes genuinely capable of a world-level medal.

“We began his steeplechase training in March 2017,” reveals Amrish Kumar Adhana, the Services coach who introduced Sable to the sport and guided him until the Tokyo Olympics.

“In July at the inter-State championships in Guntur, he was prepared well enough to win gold but he finished fourth with a timing of over nine minutes, falling at the hurdles. He was 23, just starting out and frankly, just a kid. And like kids who become wary after getting hurt, he was upset on return, wasn’t sure he could continue and wanted to quit. ‘Sir, ye hota nahi lag raha mujhse [I don’t think I can do it],’ were his words.

“But we convinced him to continue. ‘ Ye hi hoga aur tujhse hi hoga [It will happen and you will make it happen],’ I said and promised him he would make a new meet record at the Chennai Open Nationals that year if he followed my instructions. It was all about getting the negativity out of him, in mind and in training,” says Adhana.

From there to the Diamond League, the unsure kid has come a long way in establishing his legend in the event that has become synonymous with his name in India.

Five years back, that meet record stood at 8:39.18 (Elam Singh), and Sable had to cut his personal best by more than 23 seconds in two months to better it. He almost did it, clocking 8:39.81 to win. On June 5 this year, when Sable ran 8:12.48 in the Rabat Diamond League, there were no more Indian records left to break but his own, several times over.