The main goal is to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in September through a global ranking system.
On his comeback trail after a long hiatus of more than 14 months, Kerala’s 26 years old Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medallist, Murali Sreeshankar, wants to keep his plan as simple as possible says his father cum coach S Murali. “A steady performance of 8m in four-five competitions will be good to earn global ranking points and will also sharpen competitive skills,” S Murali told Sportsbackstory.com. “We are not aiming for big jump in coming weeks. The basic plan is to earn valuable world ranking points and win a ticket to the World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Tokyo from September 13 to 21 in Japan.”
World Athletics has dual qualification system for the global competition. Athletes can qualify for Worlds either through automatic qualification or having valuable global ranking points.
The automatic qualification in men’s long jump is 8.27m. Only 36 athletes will be eligible to compete in the men’s long jump at the Worlds.
Fifty percent of the athletes are expected to achieve direct entry, the remaining 50 percent through ranking points. The deadline to qualify for Worlds is August 24, 2025.
Sreeshankar’s personal best of 8.41m was achieved in 2023. The 26 years old Kerala’s international jumper injured his knee during a practice session in April 2024. He skipped the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as he had to undergo surgery to get rid of the pain.
Last weekend he competed in a domestic competition in Pune. On his comeback he claimed first position with a jump of 8.05m. “Eight meters was a good performance,” said S Murali. “Our goal was between 7.80m to 7.90m.”
Next stop is Portugal for the Indian long jumper. Sreeshankar will compete on July 19 (Saturday) and then move to Almaty for his second international event (August 2 and 3). Sreeshankar will also compete at World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Level on August 10 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. “In all the above competitions the main goal will be steady performance of 8m,” S Murali added.
