World Athletics Championship 2022 is underway in Oregon. Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar went on to finish in the seventh position in the men’s long jump final. He recorded his best effort of a 7.96 m jump that he got in the first attempt. Later on, he recorded 7.89m and 7.83m. The Palakkad-based athlete was leading the field with his first attempt.
But he couldn’t carry the same in the further efforts. Chinese athlete Wang won the gold medal with his amazing attempts in all three times. Wang recorded a best attempt of 8.36m which was his last effort also. Greek athlete Miltiadis Tentoglou bagged the silver medal with his attempt of 8.32m while Swiss guy Simon Ehammer ended up winning the bronze medal with his 8.16m attempt.
Murali Sreeshankar still holds the national record in the long jump
Earlier, Sreeshankar became the first Indian male athlete to make it to the finals of the long jump in the World Athletics Championship. His attempt in the qualification round was 8m. He has also a national record to his name in the same zone. The 23-year-old holds the record of 8.36m which he attempted during the Federation Cup played in April.
Earlier, female athlete Anju Bobby George was the first Indian to reach the finals of the long jump in the World Athletics Championships. She bagged a bronze medal back in the year 2003 in Paris.
Speaking of Sreeshankar again, then he finished with the best attempt of 8m when he ended up in the second position in the qualification round. Whereas finished at the seventh position in the overall counts. However, he failed to reach the mark of 8.15m which could help him to qualify automatically. He reached the finals as one of the 12 best jumpers. Japanese athlete Yuki Hashioka (8.18m) crossed the automatic qualification mark along with USA’s Marquis Dendy (8.16m).
Two other Indian athletes who were there in the long jump were Jeswin Aldrin and Muhammad Anees Yahiya. But unfortunately, both of these failed to qualify for the finals with their respective efforts of 7.79m and 7.73m respectively.
