Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar witnessed a new national record as Sreeshankar Murali of Kerala broke the men’s long jump national record with a gigantic jump of 8.20m. He went on to win the gold at the ongoing National Open Athletics Championships.
Murali, 19, bettered the earlier record set by Ankit Sharma who achieved a jump of 8.19m in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2016. He turned up with an effort of 8.20 in his 5th and last attempt to get his name in the history books.
Here’s the video
Watch Murali Sreeshankar setting new Indian Record in the men’s long jump with a jump of 8.20m in the Open Nationals at Bhubaneswar @afiindia @asianathletics @iaaforg pic.twitter.com/TcfJtzdHlM
— Rahul PAWAR (@rahuldpawar) September 27, 2018
His 8.20m jump is the world leading jump of the season among Under-20 athletes, bettering Cuban Maikel Yorges Vidal’s 8.12m effort in June.
The youngster came up with a jump of 7.95m in his first attempt followed by a foul second attempt and a 8.11m effort that got him into medal contention.
After a foul fourth attempt he came up with the best effort to break the national record and take the gold.
Services athlete VO Jinesh finished with the best effort of 7.95m to take the silver, while the bronze went to Haryana’s Sahil Mahabali who came up with best effort of 7.56m.
Sreeshankar’s earlier performance
Sreeshankar was named in the squad for 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games but he was sidelined from the action following an appendix surgery just before the event. He went onto compete in Asian Games 2018, where he reached the finals and finished sixth with a best jump of 7.95m.
