India has a long history of athletics, and winning medals at top events such as the Commonwealth Games. The discipline has seen a boom in recent times after Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in athletics, and also the first gold in the discipline at the Olympic Games. Since then, expectations have risen for several Indian young athletes, one of whom is Murali Sreeshankar.

While Murali Sreeshankar has been one of the most consistent performers on the national stages, and an international medal winner as well as a national record holder, he is not known by many Indian fans. However, he is still young and may turn out to be the next big thing in Indian athletics. Let’s take a look at who he is and how he became an athlete.

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Born on March 27, 1999, in Palakkad, Kerala, Sreeshankar’s love for athletics came easily since both his parents are former medal winners in the discipline. His father used to participate in the triple jump and won the silver medal at the South Asian Games. When Sreeshankar was growing up, he used to accompany his father in practices, when his father noticed his potential.

Sreeshankar began his athletics career as a sprinter. Soon, he became a state U-10 champion in 50 metres and 100 metres, before switching to long jump when he was 13. His mother is a silver medallist in 800 metres at the 1992 Asian Junior Athletics Championships, while his sister is in the heptathlon.

Sreeshankar first came to attention when he won the bronze medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in 2018. He registered a jump of 7.47 metres in the event. The young athlete also won the gold medal at the International Jumping Meeting in Kallithea, Athina.

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The youngster registered an 8.20 metres jump at the National Open Championships in September 2018, which was also a national record at the time in the U-20 category. He broke his record three years later in 2021 when he registered an 8.26 metres jump at the National Championships in Patiala, which helped him to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. It was also the new national record.

He beat his record once again in 2022 when he registered a jump of 8.36 metres at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode in April 2022. It is currently the national record for outdoor long jump in India. He also holds an indoor long jump national record, which he set in March 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia at the World Championships, equalling Kumaravel Premkumar’s 2016 record of 7.92 metres.