Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for Asian Games with a jump of 8.41m
Star long-jumper Murali Sreeshankar produced a huge effort of 8.41m at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships to qualify for the World Championships, here on Sunday. He achieved the feat in just his first jump and also narrowly fell short of the national record.
His jump was just 1cm shy of the current national record holder, Jeswin Aldrin, who had jumped 8.42m earlier this year. Having said that, this was Sreehankar's personal best effort, surpassing his 8.36m effort.
"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 said after the event. On the other hand, Aldrin came second with a best jump of 7.83m while Muhammed Anees Yahiya was third with 7.71m. The Asian Games qualifying mark for the men's long jump is 7.95m.
Last week, Sreeshankar had become just the third Indian ever to win a medal at the Diamond League, after Neeraj Chopra and Vikas Gowda. He won a bronze medal at the Paris event with an effort of 8.09m. The men's long jump qualifying distance for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August is 8.25m.