After a dismal show at the Tokyo Olympics, long jumper Sreeshankar Murali is showing signs of getting his rhythm back with a gold-winning effort of 8.17m at the inaugural AFI National Open Jumps Competition in Trivandrum. The 22-year-old, who had finished 25th in the qualifying stages of Tokyo, came up with three 8m-plus jumps and nailed his best jump in the final attempt.
“This was my comeback competition and I am really pleased with my performance today. After Tokyo, there was a lot of talk about my training methods, I think I silenced them today. I am still not 100 percent but this is a good start to the season,” the Kerala athlete said.
Overall six athletes, including Sreeshankar, made the cut for the upcoming Asian Games and Commonwealth Games as per the Athletics Federation of India’s qualifying standards. However, there was some confusion regarding the absence of a wind gauge system, a device necessary for the performance to be considered at the world level. The result sheets did not mention any wind speed readings. Several AFI office bearers were reached out to clarify but none responded.
Sreeshankar Murali is showing signs of getting his rhythm back. (AFI)
“When we got our reading the wind speeds were not mentioned and we thought it was a clerical error. But later we were told they didn’t have a wind gauge system. It is not fair for the athletes because there were a lot of decent performances today and that would have helped us in the world rankings leading to the World Championship,” an athlete eyeing Worlds qualification said.
The men’s triple jump show witnessed some stiff competition where Eldhose Paul had to come off with his career-best jump of 16.93m to stave off his Kerala state mates Karthik Unnikrishnan (16.87m) and Abdulla Aboobacker (16.81m). In the women’s long jump Ancy Sojan took the honours with 6.51m was better than AFI’s qualifying guidelines for CWG and Asiad.
Sreeshankar, the national record holder in long jump, received a lot of flak after his poor outing in Tokyo. His decision to train under father Murali also was criticised heavily. It is not certain whether Sreeshankar will continue to train under his father if and when the AFI appoints a foreign jumps coach. As per the Sports Authority of India statement last month, Juan Gualberto Napoles Cardenas had been appointed to join as horizontal jumps coach. But as per AFI officials, Cardenas is unlikely to join the Indian setup.