It was mixed fortunes for India in the men’s long jump as Jeswin Aldrin qualified for the final by the skin of his teeth, while Sreeshankar Murali uncharacteristically crashed out of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Wednesday.
Jeswin, who has the second-best jump in 2023 [8.42m], qualified by finishing 12th and claiming the last available spot in the final. He had just one legal attempt, which measured 8m. This made him the first Indian athlete to qualify for a final at the 2023 Worlds, which will be held on Thursday.
Sreeshankar, though, had a miserable outing as he finished 22nd out of 37 athletes with a best jump of 7.74m – one of his worst jumps of the year.
Making the final should have been a mere formality for the two Indians, who have two of the best jumps in 2023 to their name. And the conditions were on their side. The afternoon session in Budapest saw the weather swell to a humid 31 degrees, which almost offered the Indians a bit of ‘home advantage’.
It was similar to the conditions at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary where Jeswin jumped 8.42m and the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar where Sreeshankar jumped 8.41m this year. But in Budapest, the duo failed to capitalise on the favourable conditions and jumped well below their personal and season bests.
The competition came to life in the very second jump in Group A when Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock produced one of the biggest jumps in recent times: a monstrous 8.54m leap. The 22-year-old, a former World U-20 Worlds bronze winner, brought up an incredible new personal best, a stark improvement from his earlier best of 8.37m.
Moments after watching Pinnock seize the World Lead from him, Jeswin opened his account with a modest 8m attempt – his only legal jump.
Sreeshankar, who was in the same qualifying group as Pinnock and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, had a weaker start with a mediocre 7.74m jump. It only got worse as his second jump measured 7.66 and his third was a shocking 6.70m jump. His final jump was his worst in over nine years.
Rare sighting! Two Indian Long Jumpers. M Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin were on view at the same time on two adjacent runways in the World Championships. While Jeswin Aldrin advanced to the final with an 8m leap, Sreeshankar’s best of 7.74m was not enough to get him a berth in… pic.twitter.com/2kNMsBv8Yq
– G Rajaraman (@g_rajaraman) August 23, 2023
It’s hard to put a finger on what went wrong for Sreeshankar, who has been in good shape this year. He recently became only the third Indian athlete to finish in the top 3 at a Diamond League event and also won silver at the Asian Athletics Championships.
The silver medal also made him the first Indian jumper to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Sreeshankar’s dip in form is a huge cause of concern, especially considering the Asian Games are a month from now.
For Jeswin though, making the final will serve as a huge boost. He has had a lull since his 8.42m in March and has managed to cross the 8m mark only thrice in six competitions since then. He found his way back after a groin strain and his 8.22m effort at the CITIUS meeting in Switzerland on August 4 was his best jump on foreign soil.
He is now in the biggest competition of his life and his first Worlds final will be anything but easy – he will be up against usual suspects Tentoglou, Simon Ehammer and China’s Jianan Wang and will need to be at his absolute best – like he was when he jumped 8.42m – to stay in the hunt for a first major medal.
Does he have a realistic shot at the medal? Yes. If he can get six legal jumps. The pressure might get to him and the odds may well be stacked against him, but that’s what separates the best from the rest. A proper test awaits Jeswin.
The Athletics World Championships will be shown live on Jio Cinema.
