Shankar swami

State Senior Athletics Championships: Asian Games champion Avinash Sable set a new meet record on his way to a gold medal in men's 3000m steeplechase while top stars Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Parul Chaudhary won their respective events on the third day of the 63rd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2024 on Saturday.

Sable set the pulse racing at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, winning the gold medal by clocking 8:31.75, improving the previous meet record of 8:33.19 that he set in Lucknow back in 2019. The 29-year-old Army athlete from Maharashtra also holds the national record of 8:11.20. Sumit Kumar (8:46.93) won the silver while Shankar Swami (8:47.05) settled for bronze.

This was Sable’s second 3000m steeplechase of the season after finishing second at the Portland Track Festival athletics meet in the USA earlier this month. He is a silver medallist in the Commonwealth Games in a race dominated by the Africans.