World Athletics Championships 2022: Murali Sreeshankar finishes 7th in Long Jump final with a best of 7.96m

Indian athlete Murali Sreeshankar, who got qualified for the 2022 World Athletics Championships’ long jump final event in Oregon on Saturday, bagged the 7th spot overall.

The 23-year-old had his best jump of 7.96m in his very first attempt following a series of jumps reading: 7.96m, X, X, 7.89m, X, 7.83m.

Sreeshankar had qualified for the final event of the Long Jump, after finishing 2nd in Group B qualifiers. He had registered an 8-metre long jump, which was the seventh longest in the overall qualifiers.

Sreeshankar, since the Tokyo Olympics debacle, has seen an upward graph. The lad from Kerala had crossed the 8m in all but two of his competitions this season.

He started his season with an 8.17m at the India Open Jumps Competition in March earlier this year and followed it up with jumps of 8.09 in Federation Cup qualification and a National Record jump of 8.36m in the final in April.

His other jumps in the season read 8.31m in International Jumping Meeting, 8.01m and 8.23m at the Inter-State Athletics qualification and final.