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Murali Sreeshankar produced a record jump on Saturday at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok. He recorded a jump of 8.37 metres to secure himself a spot in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. Notably, he is the first Indian to qualify for Paris 2024 in the Track & Field discipline.
Sreeshankar, who missed the 2019 edition of the Championships due to injury, grabbed his first Asian Championship Medal on Saturday. The long jumper is having a dream season so far, with five massive jumps over 8 metres and four jumps over 8.25 metres from the start of this year.
Sreeshankar was one of the favourites to win the Gold Medal coming into the Asian Athletics Championships, where he encountered a tough fight with Chinese Taipei athlete Yu Tang Lin.
Yu Tang Lin managed only 8.10 metres on the first attempt. Sreeshankar took the lead in the third attempt with an 8.12 metres jump. The Chinese Taipei athlete had a massive jump of 8.40m in his fourth attempt to grab the top spot.
In the final attempt, Murali Sreeshankar finished with 8.37 metres, his best attempt on the day. Though the Indian athlete could not secure a gold medal, he will be glad to grab a 2024 Paris Olympics spot.
Murali Sreeshankar's impressive season
Murali Sreeshankar, who won the Olympics quota, has already qualified for August's Budapest World Championships after his career-best jump of 8.41 metres in the qualification round of last month's National Inter-state Championships in Bhubaneshwar. The Indian athlete also grabbed a bronze medal at the Paris Diamond League with the best attempt of 8.09 metres.
Also, with his jump of 8.37 metres at Bangkok in the Asian Athletics Championships, he also bettered his own record of the longest jump by an Indian outside the country. The previous best came in Kallithea, Greece, in the year 2022, where he produced a jump of 8.31 metres.
