World Athletics Championships: Long-jumper Murali Sreeshankar Enters Men's Final

Indian long-jumper Murali Sreeshankar qualified for the final of the men's long jump at the World Athletics Championships with a best attempt of 8m in the heats. He finished seventh in the heats and was the only Indian to progress. Jeswin Aldrin (best attempt - 7.79m) and Muhammed Anees Yahiya (best attempt 7.73m) were the other Indians in the fray but they could not finish among the top-12 in the heats and hence failed to progress to the final.

National record holder long jumper Sreeshankar will be a dark horse in the long jump as he sits at joint-second place among this season's leaders with his 8.36m effort during the Federation Cup in April.

The 23-year-old Sreeshankar has also been a consistent performer this season. He had another big jump of 8.31m in an event in Greece before winning gold at the National Inter-State Championships with a leap of 8.23m.

Sreeshankar shares the joint-second spot among season leaders with Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece who is the favourite to win gold.

The 24-year-old Greek long jumper has claimed Olympic, world indoor (8.55m) and European outdoor and indoor titles in his event. He is unbeaten in the outdoor season, having nailed eight wins out of eight, including Diamond League successes in Rabat, Oslo and Stockholm.

Promoted

The season leader is, however, the multi-talented Swiss athlete Simon Ehammer who is better known as a decathlete. He produced a monster jump of 8.45m in an event in Austria in May. Cuba's Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Juan Miguel Echevarria is not taking part.

With PTI inputs