Ace 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable on Sunday became the first Indian track athlete to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics after finishing sixth with his second career-best time in the Silesia Diamond League meet in Silesia, Poland.
The 28-year-old Sable clocked 8 minute 11:63 seconds, just outside his national record time of 8:11.20, but that breached the Paris Olympics qualifying mark of 8:15.00 by a fair margin.
The Olympics qualification period began on July 1, 2023 and will continue till June 30, 2024.
Moroccan world and Olympic champion El Bakkali Soufiane won the race in meet record time 8:03.16 while Kenyans Abraham Kibiwot (8:08.03) and Leonard Kipkemoi Bett (8:09.45) finished second and third respectively.
Sable became the sixth Indian and first track athlete from the country to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
He joins four 20km race walkers -- Akshadeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht in men's event and Priyanka Goswami in women's event -- and long jumper Murali Sreeshankar in the list of Indians who have qualified for the Paris Olympics so far.
The men's and women's race walk is a road event in the Olympics while long jump is a field event. The 3000m steeplechase is run on track.
This was Sable's third Diamond League meet of the year. The was also the best ever performance of Sable in a Diamond League leg in terms of timing.
He had finished 10th in Rabat, Morocco with a time of 8:17.18 and fifth in Stockholm, clocking 8:21.88, earlier this year.
Last year, he had clocked 8:12.48 to finish fifth in Rabat.
Sable has already qualified for the World Championships (August 19-27) in Budapest, Hungary.
