Keqiao Diamond League: Avinash Sable finishes 8th in men’s 3000m steeple chase-OxBig News Network

India’s top 3000m steeplechaser, Avinash Sable, finished eighth with a modest timing in the Diamond League Meeting on Saturday. The 30-year-old Sable clocked 8 minutes and 23.85 seconds in his second race of the season. His timing was more than a second worse than what he had clocked in the Xiamen Diamond League on April 26, though he finished five places higher than the last time.

In Xiamen, he finished 13th, clocking 8 minutes 22.59 seconds in a top-class field. On Saturday, Abrham Sime of Ethiopia won the race with a time of 8:07.82 while Kenyans Edmund Serem (8:08.68) and Simon Kiprop Koech (8:09.05) were second and third respectively.

Another Ethiopian, Samuel Firewu, who had won the Xiamen Diamond League, took sixth place with a time of 8:11.18. He had caused a major upset in Xiamen, beating the reigning Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco for the top spot.

El Bakkali did not compete here on Saturday.

The national record holder was competing for the second time since the Diamond League Final in September last year, where he finished ninth with a time of 8 minutes and 17.09 seconds. His national record stands at 8:09.91.

Sable, who finished 11th at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with a time of 8:14.18, has already qualified for the World Championships in September in Tokyo on the basis of the Paris Olympics timing.