Triple jumper Eldhose Paul pulls out of the race for Paris Olympics 2024 due to heel injury

Only a month remains until the much-awaited Paris Olympics 2024, Indian triple jumper Eldhose Paul has to rule himself out for the entire season, including the Olympics, after sustaining a heel injury during Inter-State Athletics Championships on Thursday.

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Eldhose managed season’s best effort of 16.55m

Eldhose Paul won the men’s triple jump event at the Tag Der Überflieger 2024 athletics competition in Essen. The 27-year-old Paul, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, managed a season’s best effort of 16.55m in the German meet, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger level event.

This was Eldhose Paul’s third competition of the year but the first abroad. He had finished second in the Indian Open Jumps competition in Bengaluru in March with a 16.45m jump. He then logged 16.29m to win the silver medal at the Indian Grand Prix, also held in Bengaluru, last month.

Murali Sreeshankar also ruled out

Eldhose Paul, Abdulla Aboobacker, and Praveen Chithravel, none of the three jumpers have qualified for Paris. Only long jumper Murali Sreeshankar has booked a berth after breaching the qualification mark at the Asian Athletics Championships last year. Unfortunately, he was also ruled out after sustaining a knee injury.

Athletes will give their all to qualify for the big event

In the men's high jump National record holder Tejaswin Shankar is also competing at the Inter-State Athletics Championships, this will be 9 competitions, and his season best so far is 2. 23 and he needs to jump well in Panchkula to qualify for Paris.

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In the women's long jump, Shaili Singh and Nayana James both jumped well in the Inter-State meet to qualify for the Paris Olympics. They are both performing well this year; Nayana James broke her personal best, while Shaili Singh has finished on the podium six times. 

As the Inter-State Athletics Championships is the last Paris Olympics qualification competition, the athletes will give their all to qualify for the big event.