World Athletics Championships: Sable enters final after fighting finish, Toor pulls out

Avinash Sable takes third spot in 3,000m steeplechase heat; M. Sreeshankar becomes the first Indian to qualify for men’s long jump final.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor in action. (FILE) | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Avinash Sable came up with a fighting finish as he pipped Eritrea’s Yemane Haileselassie to take the third spot in his 3,000m steeple chase heat and grab an automatic berth to the final of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon on Friday.

It was the second time national record holder Sable – who led the pack for half the race today – was making the final at the Worlds. He had entered the title round in Doha 2019, too.

Meanwhile, M. Sreeshankar became the first Indian man to qualify for the long jump final at the Worlds, finishing second in his group (8m) behind Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.03m). Only two jumpers had made the automatic qualification mark of 8.15m and Olympian Sreeshankar was seventh overall. The other two Indians, Jeswin Aldrin (7.79, 20th overall), who was cleared by the Athletics Federation of India at the last minute after two trials, and Muhammed Anees (7.73, 23rd) failed to make the 12-man final in their debut Worlds.

There was disappointment in the men’s and women’s 20km race walk with Sandeep Kumar (1:31.58s, 40th out of 43 finishers) and Priyanka (1:39.42s, 34th out of 36 finishers) faring badly in the finals. The two have clocked faster season-best times.

Injured Tajinder pulls out of CWG

And in the men’s shot put, Asian record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor chose to retire from the qualification round after a couple of warm-up puts. Later, he revealed to PTI that he had suffered a groin injury four days ago while training at Chula Vista and that he would not be able to compete in the coming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.