India’s Avinash Sable finished fifth in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in the Diamond League on Sunday, as he failed to improve upon his performance of the last event.

The 28-year-old Sable, running his second race of the season, clocked 8 minutes 21.88 seconds, well outside his personal best of 8:11.20s, to finish fifth. He had finished 10th, clocking a below-par 8:17.18 seconds, at the Diamond League meeting in Rabat, Morocco on 28th May.

Running on a wet track, most of the competitors struggled to clock fast times.

Sable, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medalist, has been training abroad to prepare for the August 19 to 27 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Meanwhile, Norway’s Olympic champion Karsten Warholm won the men’s 400 metres hurdles in a race that was hindered by a protest from environmentalists at a rain-hit Galan Diamond League meet on Sunday.