CWG 2022: Murali Sreeshankar wins historic silver in long jump

Commonwealth Games on Thursday. The 23-year-old national record holder soared to 8.08m in his fifth attempt to finish second behind Laquan Nairn of Bahamas in a nerve-wrecking men's long jump final. Nairn also had a best jump of 8.08m but his second best of 7.98m was better than 7.84m of Sreeshankar.

Under rules, if two jumpers are tied on the same distance, the one who has a better second best effort will be ranked ahead. Jovan van Vuuren (8.06m) of South Africa took the bronze. The other Indian in the fray, Muhammed Anees Yahiya ended at fifth with a best jump of 7.97m.

Sreeshankar had gone into CWG as gold medal favourite on the basis of his season's and personal best of 8.36m, which had put him in joint second ranking in the world this season. But he struggled in his first four jumps regarding his landing on the foot board. He was outside the medal contention at the end of the fourth round as he was in sixth place at that stage but his fifth attempt of 8.08m took him to second place.

In a dramatic final round jump, he seemed to have crossed the 8m mark -- which would have given him a gold -- but to his and the Indian contingent's disappointment, his foot landed 2cm ahead of the line on the foot board. The final attempt was thus ruled as a foul and Sreeshankar had to settle for a silver. Sreeshankar's silver was the best among Indian male long jumpers in the CWG.

Suresh Babu had won a bronze in the 1978 edition. Among women, Prajusha Maliakkal won a silver in the 2010 edition in Delhi, while legendary Anju Bobby George bagged a bronze in 2002. On Wednesday, Tejaswin Shankar had won a bronze in men's high jump to open India's medal account in athletics in this CWG.