India’s long jumper Murali Sreeshankar won the gold medal at the MVA ‘High Performance’ athletics meet held in Chula Vista, USA on Sunday.
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Competing in his second competition of the season, the 24-year-old, who had won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year, produced a fine performance as he missed his personal best of 8.36m by just 0.07m. Sreeshankar did his best last year. The qualifying standard for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest in August this year is 8.25m and Sreeshankar’s attempt was better but was disallowed due to high wind speed.
Murali Sreeshankar started his 2023 season at the Indian Grand Prix 3 in Bengaluru last month. He won the gold medal with a 7.94m effort in there. The meet in the US was his second competition of the year. And this was also his first piece of competitive action on foreign soil for 2023. Meanwhile, The Asian Games 2023 qualifying standard for men’s long jump set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), meanwhile, is 7.95m.
Sreeshankar held the men’s long jump national record in India with his 8.36 jump. But Jeswin Aldrin surpassed him with an effort of 8.42m at the second Indian Open Jumps Championships in March. Meanwhile, Ma Weidong of China won the silver medal with a jump of 7.99m. While his compatriot Huafeng Huang won the bronze with a jump of 7.61m.
