Seiya sunada

World Athletics Championships:  For years at major athletics championships and multi-discipline events, India's Avinash Sable has chased other runners in the 3000m steeplechase, hoping to use his explosive 'kick' in the home stretch to race past his opponents.

It has worked sometimes but mostly, Sable has either finished second, like in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, or faded away towards the finishing out of the medal race, like it happened in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, earlier this year.

On Sunday at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, the 29-year-old decided to do some front-running and took lead from the start itself and waged a lone battle as he won the race by a big gap and claimed his first gold medal and also maiden gold for India in 3000m steeplechase at the Asian Games.