In addition, Murali Sreeshankar also surpassed the 7.95m qualifying limit set for the Hangzhou Asian Games to be held this year.
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Indian long jump athlete Murali Sreeshankar breached the World Athletics Championships 2023 qualification mark with a career-best jump of 8.41m at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in 2023 taking place in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. After a stint in Europe, where he participated in various contests, the 24-year-old Sreeshankar made his return to India and recorded his top effort of 8.41 meters during the first attempt only in the qualification round.
This impressive leap of 8.41m gained him entry into the 2023 edition of the World Athletics Championships scheduled in Budapest, where the qualifying benchmark stood at 8.25m. In addition, Murali Sreeshankar also surpassed the 7.95m qualifying limit set for the Hangzhou Asian Games to be held this year. “The wind conditions were favorable, at 1.5m/s. I narrowly missed the national record but I’m content with this performance,” Sreeshankar commented post the qualifying event of the men’s long jump.
Meanwhile, Jeswin Aldrin took the second position with a leap of 7.83m, while Muhammed Anees Yahiya secured third place with 7.71m. A total of twelve long-jump athletes advanced to the final which will take place on Monday at 06:50 PM. The events taking place at the National Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 are being live streamed on the YouTube channel of the Athletics Federation of India.
Read More-Inter State Athletics Championships 2023: How to watch, who are participating, schedule, and more
The Diamond League 2023 Paris leg was Sreeshankar’s latest international event where he bagged the third position with a jump of 8.09m on his third attempt. In the Paris meeting, Tokyo Olympics 2020 champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece emerged as the best jumper with a leap of 8.13m. Whereas, Swiss athlete Simon Ehammer, the World Athletics Championship 2022 bronze medalist took the second spot, jumping 8.11m to go past Sreeshankar.
This marked the second time Murali Sreeshankar participated in the Diamond League. During his debut in Monaco the previous year, he secured sixth place with a jump measuring 7.94m. The men’s long jump contest in Paris saw a lineup of 10 contenders. The Paris meeting constituted the fourth leg of the Diamond League 2023, a yearly assembly of elite-level track and field events managed by World Athletics. But, this was the inaugural occasion in the current year where the men’s long jump was included in the competitions.
Sreeshankar is now the second Indian long-jumper to cross the 8.40m barrier. Jeswin Aldrin had earlier recorded a staggering 8.42m jump in March this year, which also stands as the national record at present. Previously, it was Sreeshankar who held the Indian national record with an 8.36m jump at the Federation Cup in 2021. Aldrin holds the world-leading performance in men’s long jump at 8.42m, followed closely by Sreeshankar at 8.41m. It will be interesting to see how these two Indian long jumpers rise to the big occasions in the 2023 season.
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