Star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar produced a huge 8.41m effort in his very first attempt in the qualifying round at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships to book a berth for the World Championships, here on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Sreeshankar’s jump was just a centimeter short of Jeswin Aldrin’s national record of 8.42m set earlier this year. The effort was Sreeshankar’s personal best.
“The wind reading was fine, it was 1.5m/s. Just short of the national record but I am happy to have made this jump,” Sreeshankar, representing Kerala, said after the event.
Aldrin was second with a best jump of 7.83m while Muhammed Anees Yahiya was third with 7.71m, as 12 long jumpers made it to the final to be held on Monday.
The Asian Games qualifying mark for the men’s long jump is 7.95m.
On June 9, Sreeshankar became only the third Indian — after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda — to win a Diamond League medal with a bronze in the Paris leg with an effort of 8.09m.
The men’s long jump qualifying distance for the World Championships in Budapest in August is 8.25m.
In men’s javelin qualification, three breached the Asian Games qualification mark of 78.23m. Kishore Kumar Jena of Odisha took the top spot with 79.96m, followed by Shivpal Singh (79.35m) of Uttar Pradesh and Anuj Kalera (79.04m) of Rajasthan.
Asian record holder shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor topped the qualification round with a throw of 18.91m.
On Saturday, Swapna Barman, representing Madhya Pradesh, won the gold in the women’s heptathlon and also went past the Asian Games qualifying mark of 5654 aggregate points by gathering 5918 points.
PTI
