Long jumper Murali Shreeshankar believes there is a lot of scope for improvement in his jump ahead of the Lausanne Diamond League

Murali Shreeshankar is surely one of India’s biggest prospects for the upcoming Asian Games and also for the Paris Olympics coming up next year. He has defied the odds every single time and has set new standards in long jump event. The youngster from Kerala has shown massive improvement as he finished third at the Paris Diamond League and followed it up with a big leap of 8.41 at the Inter-State National Championships qualifying round.

Shreeshankar has shown improvement with every passing event and is someone who can spark a surprise at the global level. He has sealed his World Championships ticket and will now compete at the Lausanne Diamond League to keep up his consistency.

It’s been a good season so far. But I feel there is still scope for a lot of improvement in my jumps,” the 24-year-old told TOI. He will now be in action at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday.

Sreeshankar is peaking a the right time as there are plenty of big competitions coming up and he will be an asset for the Indian Athletics contingent. Apart from Diamond Leagues, there are a plethora of other high-profile events which are in the vicinity in the next three months including the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok in July, the World Athletics Championship in Budapest in August and the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.

“There are medal possibilities in all these events. However, I am not putting too much pressure on myself thinking about podium finishes. I was seventh at the Worlds last time. I am hoping to improve my position at this year’s Worlds. A few more decent shows in the upcoming Diamond League events will help me qualify for the finals. Those two events are high on my priority list besides the two Asian events,” Shreeshankar shared. The youngster won the silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and will be gunning for more such medals this year.

A lot of credit needs to go to Jeswin Aldrin for helping Sreeshankar push even more. Aldrin, who hails from Tamil Nadu has recorded the biggest leap of the season at 8.42m and has given fierce competition to Sreeshankar in recent times.

Despite competing Shreeshankar highlights how he shared a good bond with Aldrin as they always push each other and try to give their best. “We get along really well. He calls me ‘Anna’ (big brother). During competitions, we go out together and have food together along with other jumpers. We don’t talk much about training methods but when he jumped 8.42m I took it up as a challenge to better it. I came close at 8.41m last week. So we kind of push each other with our performances. We often tell each other that we can still do better and can be better than the best in the world,” Shreeshankar opened up on his bond with Jeswin Aldrin.

Lastly, Shreeshankar believes that his training regime in the last few months has bore fruit as he is now able to breach the 8 metre mark consistently in recent events.” In fact, at the nationals, technique wise my jump in the qualifying round of 8.41m was one of my best according to his dad (S Murli- former triple jump athlete and his coach). But he rated my performance in the final where I jumped 8.29m to win gold as poor and was very unhappy. Such critical evaluation also helps me in bettering my performances,” the long jumper revealed how his dad gives him insights and criticizes his performances to push him to do better in upcoming events.

It will be a busy year for Shreeshankar and the Indian sports fans will hope that the youngster from Kerala puts his best foot forward in all the international events and win many accolades.