Avinash Sable at the Asian Games 2026: fourth on his return
Avinash Sable went to Aichi-Nagoya as the defending champion, only weeks after his first steeplechase race in about a year. He finished fourth in the 3000m steeplechase final, just off the podium, and then decided not to start the 5000m.
Fourth place so soon after knee surgery was a creditable return, but it meant India lost the title Sable won in Hangzhou. India won only one athletics gold at these Games, in the women’s 4x400m relay. For India’s results in every sport, see India at Asian Games 2026.
Injury and comeback
Sable tore the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his knee during the 3000m steeplechase at the Monaco Diamond League in 2025, after winning the Asian Championships title earlier that year. Surgery and rehabilitation kept him out for about eight months, and he missed the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He rebuilt his fitness at altitude in Ooty, at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary and at the SAI centre in Bengaluru. In September 2026 he returned to racing at the Indian Athletics Series final at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, winning the steeplechase in 8:32.39. He later admitted he had feared he might not race again.
Avinash Sable’s career highlights
- 2019, Asian Championships, Doha: silver, 8:30.19
- 2019, World Championships, Doha: 13th in the final, national record 8:21.37
- 2021, Tokyo Olympics: 8:18.12 in the heats, a national record, but no place in the final
- 2022, Commonwealth Games, Birmingham: silver in 8:11.20, 0.05 seconds behind the winner
- 2023, Asian Games, Hangzhou: gold in the 3000m steeplechase in a Games record, plus silver in the 5000m
- 2024, Paris Olympics: 11th in the final, the first Indian man to reach an Olympic steeplechase final
- 2024, Paris Diamond League: 8:09.91, his current national record
- 2025, Asian Championships, Gumi: gold
- 2026, Asian Games, Aichi-Nagoya: fourth
From the Army to the steeplechase
Sable grew up in a farming family in Mandva, a village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, and joined the Indian Army’s Mahar Regiment after school. His postings included the Siachen Glacier. He began as a cross-country runner and was switched to the steeplechase in 2017 by coach Amrish Kumar, who has guided most of his career.
Within two years he had broken the national record and reached a World Championships final. His Commonwealth Games silver in Birmingham in 2022 broke into a podium long dominated by Kenyan runners, and a year later he won Asian Games gold in Hangzhou.
What next for Avinash Sable
At 32, Sable’s immediate task is to show the knee can take a full season of racing. A healthy year would put the 2027 World Championships and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics back in view.
Updated 8 October 2026. Sources: Olympics.com, The Bridge, India Sports Hub, ThePrint, ESPN, Scroll and Wikipedia.
