Brussels: National record holder 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable finished ninth in the season-ending Diamond League final with a below-par time here on Friday.

Birthday boy Sable, who turned 30 on Friday, clocked 8 minute and 17.09 seconds to finish ninth in the 10-man field in his debut Diamond League final.

Amos Serem of Kenya emerged as the champion with a time of 8:06.90, while reigning Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali (8:08.60) of Morocco was second in the season-ending finale.

Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui of Tunisia was third with 8:09.68.

Sable had finished 11th at the Paris Olympic Games with a time of 8:14.18.

He had finished 14th in the overall Diamond League standings with three points from two meetings. But four athletes ranked higher than him -- Lamecha Girma (injured) of Ethiopia, Geordie Beamish of New Zealand, Ryuji Mura of Japan and Hillary Bor of the USA -- pulled out, allowing him to sneak inside the top 10 cut-off.

ADVERTISEMENT

Five meetings out of the 14 in the Diamond League series across the world this season had men's 3000m steeplechase event.

Reigning Asian Games champion Sable had finished sixth with a national record time of 8:09.91 -- bettering his own earlier mark -- in the Paris leg of the Diamond League on July 7. He was 14th at the Silesia leg with a time of 8:29.96 on August 25.

Each Diamond League season finale champion is awarded a 'Diamond Trophy', $30,000 prize money and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships.