Avinash Sable lines up in the men’s 3000m steeplechase final at the Asian Games on Monday evening. It will be his first major final since a career-threatening knee injury last year.

Sable tore his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus after stumbling at the water jump during the Monaco Diamond League in July 2025. He underwent surgery and spent 14 months away from competitive steeplechase, missing the Commonwealth Games.

He returned to the event on September 10 at the Indian Athletics Series Final in New Delhi. Sable won in 8 minutes 32.39 seconds, clearing the Games qualifying mark of 8:36.57.

The time is well short of his national record of 8:09.91, set in Paris in 2024. But Sable said the race was about confidence, not the clock. “I was afraid even to jump from a very short height,” he told reporters after the race.

He faces Japan’s runners and Qatar’s Zakaria Al Ahlaami in the final, according to Reuters. A medal would complete one of the great comebacks of the Games.