"Young Indian athletes are hungry to win laurels at the Olympic Games" - Avinash Sable opens up on Indian athletes' hunger for Olympic victory

India’s versatile distance runner Avinash Sable exuded confidence of a good show by the Indian athletics contingent ahead of the track and field events of the Hangzhou Asian Games starting Sept. 29.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the continental games were rescheduled to 2023 and will start Sept. 23.

Last weekend, during a send-off ceremony for the Asian Games at the Sports Authority of India Complex in Bengaluru, the 29-year-old said:

“Indian athletes are making rapid progress not only in steeplechase but overall in track and field events."

“Gone are the days when the athletes were aiming to qualify for the Olympics. But these days, young athletes are hungry to win medals at the Olympic Games,” Sable added.

The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medalist in steeplechase will compete in both the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase at the Hangzhou Asian Games in China. His personal best for 3000m steeplechase is 8:11.20 seconds, a national record. This year in May, he also improved his 5000m track record to 13:19.30 seconds.

The Indian track and field contingent had won 20 medals, eight of them gold at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. Indian athletes also won nine silver and three bronze medals.

Neeraj Chopra’s historic javelin throw gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held in 2021 in Japan, transformed Indian athletics. Chopra, the 2018 Asian Games champion, ended a two-decade medal drought by winning silver at the 2022 Eugene World Athletics Championships. As many as six Indian athletes advanced to the medal round to raise hope of a good future.

India’s retired international long jumper and Olympian Anju Bobby George was the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the 2003 Paris World Athletics Championships, claiming bronze.

At last month’s Budapest World Athletics Championships, Chopra went on to improve his profile by winning gold, a first by the Indian athlete. Besides Chopra, talented Kishore Kumar Jena and promising DP Manu finished fifth and sixth at the Worlds.

Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase), Jeswin Aldrin (long jump) and the men’s 4x400m relay team also advanced to the medal round.