India's Avinash Sable finished 9th in the men's steeplechase in the Diamond League final on Friday, September 13 in Brussels, Belgium. Birthday boy Sable, who turned 30 on Friday the 13th, clocked 8:17.09 at the King Baudouin Stadium. Sable, who finished 11th in the Paris Olympics final with a timing of 8:14.18, had broken the national record in the Paris leg of the Diamond League clocking 8:09.91. Kenya's Amos Serem won the title clocking 8:06.90 as he beat Morroco's Soufiyan El Bakkali.
The Paris Olympics Gold medallist and world champion, El Bakkali fell short of Serem by 1.70 seconds. El Bakkali, who has a personal best of a record time of 7:56.68, clocked 8:08.60, 2.55 seconds more than his Olympic Gold-clinching timing.
Tunisia's Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui finished in third place with a timing of 8:09.68 beating Paris Olympics Bronze medallist Abraham Kibiwot of Kenya.
Sable had finished 14th in the Diamond League standings in the men's 3000m steeplechase event. However, with four athletes above him on the standings not competing in the final in Brussels, Sable finished 10th and hence was able to participate but it wasn't a great run for Sable, for whom this was the maiden Diamond League final.
Spain's Daniel Arce, Mohamed Tindouft of Morocco and the Ethiopian duo of Getnet Wale and Samuel Firewu finished above Sable in the event.
On Saturday, September 14, India's only other challenger in the Diamond League Neeraj Chopra will be in action in the men's javelin throw event. Neeraj, who skipped the Paris and Zurich legs of the Diamond League, finished fourth on the standings with 14 points and will hope to win the title for the second time. Chopra finished second last year after winning the Diamond League in Doha in 2022.
Chopra has breached the 89m mark thrice in the last 40 days and will hope to get to the elusive 90m mark on Saturday night.
