Murali Sreeshankar eyeing medals at CWG 2022 and World Championship
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Murali Sreeshankar, after proving to be a big flop at the Tokyo Olympics, has had a wonderful year so far, where he had a personal best jump of 8.36m. Consistency and some improvements in technique make him a medal contender for the World Championship, as well as the Commonwealth Games.
Only Simon Ehammer of Switzerland (8.45m) is ahead of the Indian, as far as the best long jumpers this year are concerned. Now Sreeshankar's confidence is sky high and is certainly looking for medals at World Championship and the CWG.
"I have done 8.36m along with Tentaglou while there is an athlete from Switzerland (Simon Ehmmer), who has done 8.45 -- he is a decathlete, followed by an athlete from Uruguay (Emiliano Lasa - 8.28m), so I think the competition will be very tough. But I am very optimistic of a medal chance there, and if I perfect rhythm, on which I am working now and which is really coming up, I am sure that I will get the big distance," Sreeshankar said during an interaction organized by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
Sreeshankar, after the miss at the 2020 Olympics, feels that he is better equipped to handle the pressure. "I had a bad experience at Tokyo in terms of my performance as I could not achieve what I could and am capable of. I have learned a lot from that horrible experience and am now confident of doing well in the World Championships," Sreeshankar said.
"The ideal distance that I would be looking forward to this season would be to better my personal best, that's the first priority, and bettering my personal best at the biggest stage, the World Championship would certainly be good.
"I am pretty confident of doing my best at the World Championship. The Commonwealth Games are just 10 days apart. So it is not that I will do well in one and very poorly in the other. So, my preparations and performance should be more or less the same, and therefore I am hopeful of performing my best at both events," said Sreeshankar, who had competed at the previous World Championships in Doha in 2019.
