World Athletics Championships: Sreeshankar finishes seventh in long jump final

Murali Sreeshankar finished seventh in the men’s long jump final at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday.

Sreeshankar’s best jump in the final – 7.96m – came in the first attempt, that put him at the top after completion of all jumps. However, the Indian failed to improve on the mark, committing two successive fouls before registering 7.89m mark in his fourth attempt.

After another foul, Sreeshankar could only reach 7.83m, thus finishing seventh in the final standings.

China’s Jianan Wang won gold medal with an incredible 8.36m jump in his final attempt, while Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won silver medal with an 8.32m jump. Simon Ehammer of Switzerland touched 8.16m mark to win bronze.

Tentoglou had been in the lead since in the second attempts in the final – however, Wang saved his best for the last to secure a top podium finish.

Maykel Masso of Cuba had registered his season-best 8:15 but failed to finish on the podium by a whisker. Earlier, Sreeshankar had become the first Indian male long jumper to qualify for World Athletics Championships final.

The Indian had a best jump of exactly 8m in qualifiers, which he did in his second attempt, to finish second in qualification round Group B and seventh overall. And thus, he would be disappointed to not touch the qualifying mark in the final event.

The 23-year-old Sreeshankar remained far from his best this season, as he had been a consistent performer with his 8.36m jump at the Federation Cup in April, followed by 8.31m and 8.23m at an event in Greece and National Inter-State Championships respectively.

Anju Bobby George, a former long jumper herself, thus remains the only Indian to win a medal at the global tournament so far. She won a bronze medal in the 2003 edition of the World Athletics Championships.