Sreeshankar Murali is at his happy hunting ground, the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, for the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver. Weeks after winning a second consecutive silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, Sreeshankar's focus will soon shift to next month's Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Bhubaneswar, also the venue for an ongoing national camp for the Asiad, is a stepping stone. “Kalinga Stadium is my favourite track because I have always jumped well here. My first national record came here, my personal best has come here, my season best is here,” Sreeshankar said. A season's best of 8.38 metres makes him a gold-medal favourite for the Continental Tour Silver but there are worthy challengers on paper - subject to last-minute pullouts - in the form of world junior bronze medallist Shahnavaz Khan, NCAA champion Lokesh Sathyanathan and National Inter-State bronze medallist P David. All three have registered 8.20m-plus personal-best jumps this year making the men's long jump a potential thriller. Last month, Sreeshankar, 27, became the first Indian long jumper to win two medals at the Commonwealth Games. Four years ago in Birmingham, his best jump of 8.08m earned him a silver. At Glasgow, he produced 8.09m for another second-place finish. He may have to jump further to secure a win in Bhubaneswar. The weather in Glasgow was a hindrance, says Sreeshankar. “The CWG was good but weather-wise it was not conducive. For us, it was cold, and the Europeans said it was cold for them too. The conditions affected everyone equally. I was happy with the silver but gold was well within the reach, I believe,” he said. With 8-metre-plus jumps in his six competitions this season, Sreeshankar wants to maintain his form going into the Asian Games, where he was a silver medalist three years ago. “The season has been going well, training has been going well, I am healthy. I have to work on certain tweaks in my technique but there is a very short time between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. seven-eight weeks. It won't be optimal to make the changes now.” Sreeshankar has a ballpark number of his 8-metre-plus jumps. He puts it at about 60 at the conclusion of the Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in June. The next assignment is to take his leaps to the next level. “The base has been good. This year was about coming back and setting the base (post knee surgery in 2024). Now I have to set the base like how (Miltiadis) Tentoglou and others are doing - like 8.20s and 8.30s. Now I am consistent over 8 metres. Any particular day, irrespective of the weather, I want to bring the consistency above 8.20m. The 2028 Olympic wave has already started. Just want to stay healthy.” Excellent speed Once this season is over, among the tweaks Sreeshankar wants to make is takeoff mechanics. “I tend to go more vertical than horizontal. Long jump is a horizontal jump. But I go a bit more vertical and get more flight time in the air than any other athlete. Basically, I am not utilizing the speed that I have. My speed is comparable with the top three long jumpers in the world but I am not able to use that properly. I have identified a few things which I want to do and once I can do that, it will be the missing piece of the puzzle for that big jump to happen,” he hoped. A surgery for a ruptured patellar tendon came as a setback for Sreeshankar in 2024, the year of the Paris Olympics, keeping him on the sidelines for 21 months. The doctor said the severity of the rupture was comparable to injuries suffered during an 'high impact car crash' or 'fall from the top of a building'. Anchor screws were implanted during surgery. Sreeshankar has to take extreme care of his knee. “Every day I have to take care of it (knee), with icing and recovery. There are a few post-surgery complications I have to bear with till the time I am doing sports. I also have to do shock-wave and ultrasound treatment. I have to make sure that my knee is not stiffened up when I travel. So I have to keep on moving during the flight.”
