Two years after his Olympic dreams were dashed by a left patellar tendon rupture that almost ended his career, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar won a creditable silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Wednesday.
Event Context
A silver medallist from the 2022 Birmingham CWG, Sreeshankar repeated the effort with a best leap of 8.09m that came on his second attempt. He held the lead till the fourth try before Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle stole his thunder with an 8.15m jump. Scotland’s Stephen Mackenzie was third with a best of 8.08m.
In what appeared to be conducive conditions for jumping with a mild tailwind, Jamaica’s three-time World Championships medallist opened the competition with an impressive jump of 8.08m that put him in joint lead with Mackenzie at the end of the opening series.
Sreeshankar started with a solid 8.03m while compatriot Lokesh Sathyanathan opened with 7.97m. Sreeshankar’s second attempt of 8.09m pushed him into the lead until Gayle threw down the gauntlet. Tall, powerful, and blessed with a fluid technique, the Jamaican took the lead on his fourth attempt.
Having lost the lead, Sreeshankar calmed himself with a few deep breaths before beginning his run. It appeared to be a decent jump, but it didn’t matter as the effort was deemed a foul.
What makes Sreeshankar’s achievement more significant is that about two years back, he was at his lowest ebb. “Forget competing, the doctors told me I may not even walk again,” he told HT before leaving for Glasgow.
Sreeshankar went under the knife in April 2024 at Aspetar Hospital in Doha and returned to competitions last year. The procedure involved a skin graft and three screws in his knee.
The surgery required him to change his approach to training and recovery. Under the guidance of strength and conditioning expert Wayne Lombard, Sreeshankar’s current training plans demand a three-hour, five-days-a-week regimen.
“Earlier, I used to train six days, but now the body demands more time to recover. I understand my body a lot better now. I have to do a lot of rehab, pre-training activations, and post-training care for my knee,” he said. That involves daily icing, using compression boots for his quadriceps and regular soft tissue work for the hip flexors “so that there is no load coming into the left knee.”
Though Sreeshankar has reconciled to the fact that his left knee will never feel the same, he feels he has the potential to be where no Indian has been. “I do feel 8.50m is very achievable, and I can see it coming very soon,” he had said. The current national record stands at 8.42m and belongs to Jeswin Aldrin; Sreeshankar’s best is 8.41m.
Team Analysis
Despite missing out on gold, the silver augurs well for Sreeshankar considering the Asian Games start in two months.
Match Outlook
With two attempts left, a visibly nervous Sreeshankar could produce only 7.94m. He signed off with 7.97m, with his series reading 8.03m, 8.09m, x, x, 7.94, and 7.97m. A victory would have made Sreeshankar the first Indian to win a long jump event in CWG history.
Sathyanathan ended fifth with a best of 7.97m that he produced in his first go. The 27-year-old struggled for rhythm thereafter. His run-up looked off, and despite a decent opening, he failed to get going. Despite a season’s best of 8.21m, which he hit twice this year in the USA, Sathyanathan failed to get a single 8m jump in. His series read 7.97m, 7.70m, 7.49m, 7.65m, 7.32m and 7.62m.
Remarkable comeback
