Avinash Sable is India’s foremost athlete at the moment in the steeplechase. He has rewritten his own national record several times and qua...

Avinash Sable is India’s foremost athlete at the moment in the steeplechase. He has rewritten his own national record several times and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. But after about a year without competition, the 26-year-old tried his hand, or rather feet, at the half marathon and ended up with the national record in the event as well.
Sable participated in the Delhi Half Marathon on Sunday and became the first Indian to run a half marathon under 61 minutes, clocking 1:00:30 seconds and finishing much ahead of his compatriots.
At a time when there are no track races and the athletics calendar is disrupted like most sports, the athlete from Maharashtra, only participated in the half marathon to test himself after training consistently over the last seven months. The Delhi Half Marathon was the first major athletics competition to be held in India since the coronavirus lockdown earlier in the year.
“It felt good to be back in competition and the result made it better. I am happy because after all that training, the improvement showed,” Sable told Scroll.in. “I participated in it as a trial event to test myself… how much faster have I become and how many seconds I have shaved off my...