Indian athletes had mixed fortunes at the Monaco Diamond League, with steeplechaser Avinash Sable failing to finish his 3000m race after a fall, while sprinter Animesh Kujur impressed with a fourth-place finish in the U-23 200m event on Friday night.Sable, the national record holder and Olympian, had to exit the race early after suffering a visible injury from the fall. The 30-year-old Asian champion was aiming for a top-five finish but had to limp off the track.Morocco’s Soufiane el Bakkali won the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 8:01.18 seconds, followed by Japan’s Ryuji Miura at 8:03.43 and Kenya’s Edmund Serim at 8:04.00 seconds in the 19-runner field.Despite already qualifying for the Tokyo World Championships in September, Sable has struggled to find his best form this year, with 13th and eighth-place finishes in his previous Diamond League appearances.In contrast, 22-year-old Kujur delivered a strong performance in the Under-23 200m event, clocking 20.55 seconds against elite competition. Australian Gout Gout won the race in 20.10s, while Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinathshipi and South Africa’s Naeem Jack finished second and third with times of 20.28s and 20.42s respectively.Kujur, who hails from a tribal village in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, has been making waves in Indian athletics. He currently holds the national record in 200m at 20.32s.The rising sprint star recently broke the national 100m record with a time of 10.18s at the Dromia International Sprint and Relays Meet in Greece, surpassing the previous record held by Gurindervir Singh.Earlier this season, Kujur also achieved the fastest 200m time by an Indian, clocking 20.27s in Geneva.Kujur has set his sights on achieving the World Championships qualifying mark of 20.16s for Tokyo this September and aims to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m event.
