I am a far better jumper than I was a year ago: Murali Sreeshankar | More sports News – Times of India

KOCHI: There is a spring in Murali Sreeshankar‘s steps these days. A third-place finish in Paris Diamond League couple of weeks back, a big leap of 8.41m in the qualifying round of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, which also sealed his ticket for the World Championship, followed by a gold-winning performance of 8.29m in the final round has shown that the long jumper from Palakkad in Kerala is heading in the right direction.
“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 before he flew to Lausanne, where he is scheduled to compete in the next Diamond League meeting on Friday.
Sreeshankar’s determination to raise the bar augurs well for Indian athletics. Besides the Diamond League competitions, there are a series of high-profile events coming up in the next three months which includes the Asian Athletics Championship at 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 upcoming Diamond events will help me qualify for the finals. Those two events are high on my priority list besides the two big Asian events,” said the Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medallist, who is coached by his dad, S Murali, a former triple jumper and silver medallist at South Asian Games.
What is keeping Sreeshankar on his toes these days is the fierce competition he is facing from compatriot Jeswin Aldrin even in domestic competitions. The two leading jumps in the world this year have come from the Indians with Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin setting a national record by producing a leap of 8.42 at Bellary in March. Sreeshankar says that he shares a great bond with Jeswin and they always push each other 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 our training methods. But when he jumped 8.42, I took it as a challenge to better it. I came close at 8.41 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.”
Sreeshankar reckons that the training stint at the Texas Tech University in Lubbock in US from May under renowned horizontal jumps coach Keith Herston has made him a better jumper. “It was the longest training stint abroad of my athletics career as I was there for almost two months. The day-to-day training schedule was planned by me and by my dad. Herston pointed out the flaws in my approach, which in turn affected the rhythm of my jumps. We worked closely to iron out the shortcomings. It helped me improve my approach and I have become a far better jumper than I was a year ago at the Commonwealth Games.”
The improvement is evident as he has been able to breach the 8m mark consistently in the recent meets. “In fact, at the nationals, technique-wise my jump in the qualifying round (8.41) was one of my best according to my dad. 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 gives an insight on how he and his dad go about assessing his performances.