Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for World Championships with a huge jump of 8.41m

Murali Sreeshankar has achieved the qualification mark for the World Championships at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships.

Star Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar registered a spectacular jump of 8.41m in his very first attempt of the qualifying round of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships on Sunday. The 24-year-old produced a jump which was just one centimetre shy of Jeswin Aldrin’s national record of 8.42m set earlier this year.

However, 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 also competed her and he finished 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.

It was on June 9 when Murali Sreeshankar became only the third Indian - after Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda - to secure a Diamond League medal after winning the bronze in the Paris leg with a jump of 8.09m.

The men’s long jump qualifying standard for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August was set at 8.25m.

In the women’s long jump qualification round, Ancy Sojan of Kerala breached the Asian Games mark of 6.45m with a best effort of 6.49m as she finished ahead of state-mate Nayana James (6.31m) and India number one Shaili Singh (6.27m) of Uttar Pradesh, who also made it to Monday’s final.

In the shot put category, Asian Games record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor also topped the qualification round at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships with a throw of 18.91m. However, he fell nine centimeters short of the Asian Games qualifying mark of 19m.

Coming to the men’s javelin throw qualification, three athletes were successful in breaching the Asian Games qualification mark of 78.23m. Kishore Kumar Jena of Odisha clinched the top spot in the qualification round with a best throw of 79.96m, followed by Shivpal Singh (79.35m) — who has served a one-year doping ban — of Uttar Pradesh and Anuj Kalera (79.04m) of Rajasthan.

National record holder Amlan Borgohain also made his way to the men’s 200m semifinal after topping the Round 1 heats while Srabani Nanda of Odisha and Shabnam of Delhi clocked identical 24.31 seconds in corresponding women’s race.

The men’s 1500m preliminary heats saw four runners breaching the Asian Games qualifying mark of 3:47.84, though only two athletes can represent a country in the continental multi-sporting spectacle.