Murali Sreeshankar on Thursday won a silver medal in men’s long jump event at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. With the second-place finish, India’s total medal tally rose to 20.
Sreeshankar in his fifth attempt soared to 8.08m to finish second behind Laquan Nairn of Bahamas. The two were tied.
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However, as per the rules, if two jumpers are tied on same distance, the one who has a better second best effort will be ranked ahead. Nairn had a second best attempt of 7.98m while the Indian had 7.84m
Jovan van Vuuren (8.06m) of South Africa took the bronze. Muhammed Anees Yahiya ended at fifth with a best jump of 7.97m.
Sreeshankar is a national record holder. He had gone into the Commonwealth Games as gold medal favourite after recording a season-best 8.36m jump. The 23-year-old is the joint second ranked player in he world.
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On Thursday, 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 at sixth place at that stage but his fifth attempt of 8.08m took him to the 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.
Sreeshankar’s silver was the best among Indian male long jumpers in the CWG. Suresh Babu had won a bronze in the 1978 edition.
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Among women, Prajusha Maliakkal won a silver in the 2010 edition in Delhi, while legendary Anju Bobby George bagged a bronze in 2002.
It was Sreeshankar’s first medal in a major international competition and a multi-sport event. Before this, he had won a bronze in the 2018 Asian U-20 Championships in Gifu, Japan.
