File photo by Avinash Sable© X (formerly Twitter)
National record holder in the 3000m steeplechase Avinash Sable finished ninth in the season-ending Diamond League final with a sub-par time on Friday. Birthday boy Sable, who turned 30 on Friday, clocked 8 minutes 17.09 seconds to finish ninth in the 10-man field on his debut in the Diamond League final. Kenya's Amos Serem emerged as the Diamond League champion with a time of 8:06.90, while reigning Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali (8:08.60) of Morocco was second in the season-ending final. Tunisia's Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui was third in 8:09.68. World champion and Paris Olympic silver medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be in action on Saturday.
Sable had finished 11th at the Paris Olympics with a time of 8:14.18.
He had finished 14th in the Diamond League standings with three points from two matches, but four athletes ranked higher than him (Lamecha Girma (injured) of Ethiopia, Geordie Beamish of New Zealand, Ryuji Mura of Japan and Hillary Bor of the United States) withdrew, allowing him to sneak into the top 10.
Of the 14 DL Series meetings around the world this season, five included the men's 3000m steeplechase event.
The reigning Asian Games champion Sable had finished sixth with a national record time of 8:09.91 (improving his own previous mark) at the Paris stage of the Diamond League on July 7. He was 14th at the Silesian stage with a time of 8:29.96 on August 25.
Each Diamond League season finale champion receives a 'Diamond Trophy', a cash prize of $30,000 and a wildcard to the World Athletics Championships.
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