Growing up in poverty, Avinash Sable ran when walking was enough. He used to carry out most of the activities including running, covering a distance of six kilometers from his home to school. Either way, every day, for years.
Little did Sables know that his son’s daily routine from a young age was slowly turning into small steps for a career in athletics. The very humble background also caught the attention of their coach Amrish Kumar, who served as the base around which Sable began to build success, the latest being an 8:11.20 silver-winning effort at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
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“When I was a kid, I never thought that I would become an athlete and win medals for the country. That is destiny,” the 27-year-old will say. After joining the Indian Army five years ago after joining the competitive sport , Sable is a classic case of an athlete with a “steel desire” to conquer lofty heights despite enormous difficulties.
Born in a poor farming family in Mandwa village of Beed district of Maharashtra, Sable made it a habit to rewrite the 3000m steeplechase national record. In Birmingham, he became the first non-Kenyan to win a medal at the CWG since 1994.
A versatile distance runner, Sable owns the national record in three events. He also holds national records in 5000 meters (13:25.65) and half marathon (1:00:30). He broke Bahadur Prasad’s 30-year-old national record of 5000 meters in May. After passing his 12th standard exams, Sable joined the Indian Army to financially support his parents, and this changed his life. Apart from success in sports, he is now also a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO).
many of the top athletes India And the world starts early when they are in school. But Sable made a late start. In 2015, when he was 21, he was enrolled in the 5 Mahar Regiment and was posted to Siachen and then to Rajasthan and Sikkim. His army training and survival in extreme climates made him a tough guy. He would later say that competing in the race was no match for Senna’s hard training.
After joining the Indian Army, Sable gained weight – reaching 76 kg – and one day his regiment was to have a cross-country race and wanted to take part in it. But his weight was the constraint so he got up earlier than his other peers and did extra exercise to make himself lean. He soon became part of the service side that won the team event and finished fifth in the individual event at the National Cross Country Championships.
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That’s when he met his former coach Kumar and the rest, as they say, is history. It was 2017, and under Kumar, who also coaches the Indian Army mentoring long-distance athletes, Sable switched from cross country to the 3000m steeplechase. The two achieved success after success, with Sable breaking several national records.
Sable’s humble background, in fact, made it a point for Kumar to take him under his wing. “For me, the background of the athlete is very important. People who come from humble families, come from villages, they have faced the worst situations in life, those things have made them tough and war ready. They are not afraid of adversity and want to work hard.
“Still, among the athletes I trained, Sable was special and different from the others. He has the will to steel and can come back from any worse situation,” Kumar said.
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