Avinash Sable | The serial record-breaker with a monk’s calmness

For someone who has made breaking records seem like an everyday affair, it is difficult to believe Avinash Sable once had doubts about whether he would ever be competitive within the country — at that point, the world stage was a dream too far.

It’s a good thing he was talked out of his doubts in July 2017. For, over the next year, the 3000m steeplechaser experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, becoming a man focused on performances and records to the point of obsession, with all the calmness of a monk. This has made him one of the few Indian track athletes genuinely capable of a world-level medal.

The start

“We began his steeplechase training in March 2017,” reveals Amrish Kumar Adhana, the Services coach who introduced Sable to the sport and guided him until the Tokyo Olympics.

“In July at the inter-State championships in Guntur, he was prepared well enough to win gold but he finished fourth with a timing of over nine minutes, falling at the hurdles. He was 23, just starting out and frankly, just a kid. And like kids who become wary after getting hurt, he was upset on return, wasn’t sure he could continue and wanted to quit. ‘Sir, ye hota nahi lag raha mujhse [I don’t think I can do it],’ were his words.

“But we convinced him to continue. ‘ Ye hi hoga aur tujhse hi hoga [It will happen and you will make it happen],’ I said and promised him he would make a new meet record at the Chennai Open Nationals that year if he followed my instructions. It was all about getting the negativity out of him, in mind and in training,” says Adhana.

From there to the Diamond League, the unsure kid has come a long way in establishing his legend in the event that has become synonymous with his name in India.

Five years back, that meet record stood at 8:39.18 (Elam Singh), and Sable had to cut his personal best by more than 23 seconds in two months to better it. He almost did it, clocking 8:39.81 to win. On June 5 this year, when Sable ran 8:12.48 in the Rabat Diamond League, there were no more Indian records left to break but his own, several times over.

His 2017 Chennai performance made the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) bring him into the national fold, six months after he had first heard of steeplechase. It was also to be the beginning of a torrid 12 months for the youngster, racked with an ankle injury (Sable blames his own over-training), self-doubts (failing to qualify for the Asian Games), alien conditions and unknown faces away from the comfort of his coach, army teammates and familiar surroundings.

Born on September 13, 1994, in Maharashtra’s Beed district, Sable developed endurance early, more out of compulsion than choice. Raised in a family of farmers struggling to make ends meet in a hot, water-scarce place, the army offered Sable a way out of deprivation. The 5 Mahar regiment became his refuge after school.

From 2013 to 2016, Sable was a regular fauji — posted at outposts such as the Siachen Glacier, the deserts of north-western Rajasthan in Lalgarh Jattan, border posts in Sikkim and the forests of Arunachal Pradesh — before being identified as a sporting talent and included in the army cross-country team in 2016.

The first stint with Belarusian coach Nikolai Snesarev in the national camp wasn’t great. The comfort of familiarity was important for Sable and the Army Sports Institute (ASI) gave him that. Away from it, he struggled. Adhana says he tried to convince the AFI not to break Sable’s training group at least until the 2018 Asian Games, then just eight months away, because he was a medal prospect. But the federation was insistent and Sable had to report at Shilaroo.

At the 2018 Federation Cup in Patiala, Sable avoided third place by a microsecond. By June, he had slipped to 8:49.25 at the inter-State in Guwahati. From being a medal hope to not qualifying for the Asian Games, it was quite a fall, as much in the mind as in the body.

The reunion and the revival

Sable returned to the ASI after the Asian Games and the reunion sparked a period that saw him go from being just another runner to a record-breaking machine. He began with the 37-year-old national record of Gopal Saini (8:30.88), stopping the clock at 8:29.80 in Bhubaneswar. That’s a neat 20 seconds shaved off in three months, one of which was spent off training!

“When you get the right results at the beginning, there is trust. Between us, there was clarity that indiscipline, aggression and being casual or negative in training won’t do — not with any coach anywhere in the world. Being calm and focused is the only thing that gives results,” Adhana says, explaining the runner’s zen mode.

Sable’s legend isn’t only one of growth on track. Off it too, the 27-year-old has become confident — enough to train in California with coach Scott Simmons, all alone without an Indian face around him for reassurance.

“It took time and I was nervous, especially because others before me had struggled here but once I settled into training, it got better. The training partners and environment here is something not possible in India, they push you to constantly do better,” Sable says. The fact that the next best Indian is almost 20 seconds off his pace also forced his hand.

Back home, he had got used to running a lonely race. “I know I have to compete against myself and it is difficult but not impossible. I set a target before every event and train accordingly, depending on my fitness. Competing internationally helps because you get pushed to do better,” Sable has said. Few competitions and no competitors are definitely not what a top-level athlete craves. Now, he is happy not to worry about the pace or falling behind.

Perfect execution

“The best part about his race [in Rabat] was that he followed the plan perfectly. In India, if he goes out back, he is already going to be slow. But here there was no need to push the pace. I told him this was the first opportunity where he didn’t have to worry about the pace; all he needed to do was relax and focus on himself,” Simmons says, explaining Sable’s performance.

This was the seventh time since 2018 that Sable has bettered himself, the latest in a field that included two Olympic gold medallists (Soufiane Bakkali and Conseslus Kipruto), an Olympic silver (Lamecha Girma) and bronze medallist (Benjamin Kigen, whom he finished ahead of). He has also added the last long-standing Indian track record of 5000m and the half-marathon to his kitty, becoming the first Indian to finish the 21km in under 61 minutes.

Bold prediction

“ Abhi to aur bahut record tootenge [There will be more records broken],” Adhana declares. “His base is strong and he will only get better. People don’t know that the timings he is clocking now, he has already done it in training long back, even before the Olympics. The two bouts of Covid affected his performance at Tokyo and his mind after that but the momentum is back now. He can go under eight minutes and he will also break the 10,000m record, going under 28 minutes. He will win a medal at the CWG and if everything goes fine, gold at the Asian Games. These I can guarantee,” is Adhana’s bold prediction.

Simmons believes Sable is a natural athlete and only needs minor tweaks to be a regular challenger at the top level. The Rabat Diamond League, where he finished fifth, proved he was on track to do so sooner than expected. International sport is a game of fine margins, a grind dominated by champions that often have a long line of predecessors to emulate and exceed. Sable, by that definition, is an exception in a country starved of sporting icons.

He isn’t yet the poster boy of Indian athletics but that hasn’t stopped him from overhauling records by the dozen — with the promise of more to come.