Tag: Avinash Sable

Steeplechaser Avinash Sable breaks national record for the fifth time

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Steeplechaser Avinash Sable was one of the first Indian track and field athletes to make the cut for the Olympics when he clocked 8 minutes and 21.37 seconds at the 2019 Doha World Championships. But he did not sit on his laurels.

The army man from the arid Beed district of Maharashtra broke the national record for the fifth time in his career clocking 8:20.20s and rewriting his previous best achieved in Doha.

The 26-year-old runner began shattering national marks in 2018 when he rewrote Gopal Saini’s 37-year-old record.

The Tokyo-bound runner is confident about breaking the record for a sixth time. “I am yet to hit my peak. I will increase the intensity of training gradually so that during the Games I can perform at my optimal level. I am really glad that I could rewrite my national record again for the fifth time but this won’t be the last,” said the runner who has improved by nine seconds since September 2018.

Despite the faster time, the runner has always felt like being at a disadvantage because of not having other athletes of his caliber to train with. His personal coach and fellow army man Amrish Kumar had to ride a motorbike or a cycle ahead of him during training to mimic a fast-paced runner.

“Meri bhi exercise hojati thi. ( I also burnt some calories). We don’t have that level of runners in the country. So I cycle at a pace that normally world-class runners would run at while Sable would follow,” coach Amrish told The Indian Express.

Sable has been training under Amrish since 2016 and recently Nikolai Snesarev was assigned to overlook the middle and long-distance campers, including Sable. But the 72-year-old coach from Belarus passed away earlier this month.

“We were going to work together on Sable. But unfortunately, he is no more. We had been training at Ooty and later moved to Bengaluru. Right now the intensity of training is only 80 per cent since we need to preserve him for the Olympics. He will definitely break the national record again,” the coach said.

India’s little Kenya

Amrish says the primary reason for selecting Sable in 2016, a full-time sepoy then, was because he was from “India’s little Kenya”, the Beed district of Maharashtra known for its scorching heat. “The moment I got to know he is from Beed my interest in him grew. That is a very dry and tough region to live in. People sometimes have to manage a day without water. People from that region are naturally strong and have excellent endurance,” coach Amrish explained.

Sable grabbed on to the opportunity to become a full-time athlete. “You cannot compare this Sable to the one I recruited in 2016. He did not even know what steeplechase was. I decided to take the risk of training him primarily because of the region he comes from. During the initial trials, he showed great endurance and that is what is needed in this discipline,” said Amrish.

With time running out before the Olympics, Sable is eager to train overseas with athletes in Kenya or Morocco. “I want to practice with the best in the world and that is the only way I can push myself and improve my timings further. If I cannot go we should probably experiment by inviting a few of them to train with us in India. In Kenya they have dozens of such athletes who can help us,” said Sable.

Neeraj throws 87-metre plus

Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who recently bettered his national record, managed an 87.80m throw in his final attempt. The Haryana athlete, who has already qualified for the Games, said he was satisfied with the day’s performance and would like to gradually better his distance.

“I regularly hit the 84m mark at practice but my best throws come at competitions. I will try to improve my distance in the upcoming competitions and eventually try to breach the 90m mark,” he said.



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Avinash Sable, Neeraj Chopra, Tajinderpal Toor give India reason to cheer | More sports News – Times of India

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PATIALA: Maharashtra’s Avinash Sable paid the best possible tribute to late coach Nikolai Snesarev, posting a new national record time of 8 minutes 20.20 seconds to win the 3000m steeplechase at the Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.
Along with javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sable gave India much reason for cheer.
Chopra broke his own meet record while Toor had a superb series of throws at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports.
Sable, who set the earlier national mark at 8:21.37 in the World Championships in Doha on October 4, 2019, broke free of the pack after a lap and a half and raced the clock on the third day of the competition.
Having already secured Olympic qualification, the 26-year-old was a picture of determination and confidence as he chased his target time — almost as if to honour the late Belarussian coach.
Javelin thrower Chopra sustained his fine run of form with a massive throw over 87.80m on his final attempt which secured him a new meet record.
Having raised the national record to 88.07m in the Indian Grand Prix III here on March 5, he showed a hunger for consistency and desire to embrace consistency rather than rest on his past feats.
Earlier, 26-year-old Toor (Punjab) uncorked a series of big throws as he sought to meet the Olympic qualifying mark of 21.10m.
Opening with a throw of 19.99m, the strapping left-hander went past the 20m mark on each of his four other legal throws, recording 20.20m, 20.17m, 20.58m and 20.47m with a foul on his fourth try.
The world No. 24 was looking to join 24 others who have achieved the Olympic entry standard. At the moment, he is third on the list of eight who can qualify on the basis of their world ranking.
The final two attempts on Wednesday evening showed that he is getting better outcomes for his sustained efforts.
Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) played the waiting game to perfection, letting Komal Jagdale (Maharashtra) set the pace but staying on her heels through the women’s 3000m steeplechase only to sprint away in the final 200m to a secure comfortable win in the end.
She was also superior at the water jumps where Jagdale lost some precious time.
Priyanka Kerketta (Jharkhand) came up with a final effort of 6.10m to leapfrog to a gold medal past Rintu Mathew (Kerala) and Sherin Abdul Gafoor (Tamil Nadu), who both had best efforts of 6.07m each.
Kerketta, 22, was lying in the fourth spot with a best of 6.01m but her final jump pushed Telangana’s Agasara Nandini out of the medal bracket.
Ankesh Chaudhary (Himachal Pradesh) won the fastest of three men’s 800m semifinals, clocking 1:50.81 ahead of Krishan Kumar (Haryana) and Anu Kumar (Uttarakhand) but with Asian Games gold medalist Manjit Singh (Haryana) in the fray, the final could see a faster time.
The women’s two-lap final will pit MR Poovamma against Delhi’s Chanda and Shalu Chaudhary as well as Lili Das (West Bengal) and Haryana’s Rachna.
The results (finals):
Men 10000m: 1. Abhishek Pal (Uttar Pradesh) 29:47.49; 2. Kartik Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 29:48.21; 3. Arjun Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 29:49.46.
110m Hurdles: 1. P Veeramani (Tamil Nadu) 14.57 seconds; 2. CP Srikanth Madhya (Karnataka) 14.85; 3. Yashwant Kumar Laveti (Andhra Pradesh) 15.01.
3000m Steeplechase: 1. Avinash Sable (Maharashtra) 8:20.20 (New National and Meet Records. Old National Record: 8:21.37, Sable, Doha, 2019; Old Meet Record: 8:28.94, Sable, Patiala, 2019); 2. Shankar Lal Swamy (Rajasthan) 8:34.33; 3. Rajkumar (Haryana) 8:49.96.
High Jump: 1. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Maharashtra) 2.15m; 2. Aadarsh Ram (Tamil Nadu) 2.10; 3. Geo Jos (Kerala) 2.10 and Siddharth Yadav (Haryana) 2.10.
Shot Put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 20.58m; 2. Karanveer Singh 18.98; 3. Devinder Singh (Punjab) 18.04.
Javelin Throw: 1. Neeraj Chopra (Haryana) 87.80m (New Meet Record. Old: 86.94, Neeraj Chopra, Patiala, 2018); 2. Yashvir Singh (Haryana) 79.31; 3. Rohit Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 78.88.
Women:
100m Hurdles: 1. C Kanimozhi (Tamil Nadu) 13.63 seconds; 2. Agasara Nandini (Telangana) 13.88; 3. R Nithya Ramraj (Tamil Nadu) 14.08.
3000m Steeplechase: 1. Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 10:01.06; 2. Komal C Jagdale (Maharashtra) 10:05.43; 3. Chinta Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 10:36.45
Long Jump: 1. Priyanka Kerketta (Jharkhand) 6.10m; 2. Rintu Mathew (Kerala) 6.07; 3. Sherin Abdul Gafoor (Tamil Nadu) 6.07.

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Athletics coach Nikolai Snesarev found dead at NIS Patiala hostel room | More sports News – Times of India

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PATIALA: India’s middle and long distance coach Nikolai Snesarev of Belarus was on Friday found dead in his hostel room at the National Institute of Sports, the Athletics Federation of India said.
The dead body of the 72-year-old Snesarev, who returned to India after a gap of two years to be at the helm till the end of September, has been sent to a government hospital for post mortem.
“He had come to NIS (from his Bengaluru base) for the Indian Grand Prix 3 held today. But when he did not turn up for the meet, the coaches checked for him in the evening and his room was found locked from inside,” AFI President Adille Sumariwalla told PTI.

“When the door was broken, he was found lying on his bed. The Sports Authority of India doctor at the NIS declared him dead and the ED (team) of the SAI has referred the body to the government hospital for post mortem.
“We don’t know the cause of death. We will know it later after post mortem.”
Snesarev was at the NIS running track in the morning with his wards but did not turn up for the meet which started at 2pm.

“He died with his boots on, having overseen his wards’ training this morning,” the AFI said in its tribute in a release issued later.
Snesarev was coaching 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who has qualified for the Olympics, and other middle and long-distance runners in their bid to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
“I’m deeply saddened to learn about the sad demise of middle and long distance running coach Nikolai Snesarev. He has been a great coach and helped many medal winners during his association with India since 2005. My condolences to his family and the entire athletics fraternity,” sports minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted.

He had quit from the position in February 2019 after Sable opted to leave him and train under Army coach Amrish Kumar.
His contract then was till the end of the Olympics, postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The veteran coach first arrived in India in 2005 to take charge of 10,000m runners Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut.
He guided the duo to a 1-2 finish in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. It was the first time that Indian women won medals in the 25-lap race.

Sudha Singh, who won gold in the 2010 Asian Games, was also under his charge.
Later that year, he suggested Lalita Babar to shift to steeplechase.
And thanks to his sustained efforts, Babar became the first Indian athlete to reach a track event final in the Olympic Games since PT Usha in 1984 when she made it to the steeplechase final in 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We are stunned … he returned to India only a few days ago (landed in Bengaluru on March 2 and then reached Patiala next day), having agreed to train steeplechaser Avinash Sable for the Olympic Games,” Sumariwalla said.
“He was a hard-taskmaster and one who developed his own training routines for his athletes. He was highly respected in the international circles and we were privileged that he shared a wonderful relationship with India,” he said.
Sumariwalla also lauded Snesarev for imposing a “blanket ban” on all kinds of drugs.
“As someone who believed in research, he showed us the way with his pioneering efforts towards improving the endurance and speed of his athletes.
“He insisted that athletes never touch any medicines while training with him, imposing a blanket ban on all kinds of medication, even prescribed ones,” Sumariwalla recalled.



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