Murali Sreeshankar qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics, first Indian athlete to do so

Murali Sreeshankar in a file photo. Image: Twitter/@India_AllSports

Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar qualified for the Paris Olympics next year with a leap of 8.37 metres at the Asian Athletics Championships. With the jump, Sreeshankar won a silver medal which is India’s 12th at the event in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sreeshankar is the first Indian athlete, alongside race walkers, to qualify for the Sumer Olympics in Paris next year.

China’s Yu Tang Lin won the gold medal in long jump with a leap of 8.40m.

Sreeshankar started with jump of 8.10m followed by a foul and then 8.12m, 8.11m, 8.13m. His best came in the sixth and final attempt where he jumped 8.37m for his season best. His previous best this season was 8.29m at the MVA High-Performance athletics meet 1 in Chula Vista, USA in May.

The entry standard for long jump at Paris Olympics was set at 8.27m.

Earlier, Santhosh Kumar won bronze medal in men’s 400m hurdles with a personal best time of 49.09 seconds on the fourth and penultimate day of competitions.

Santhosh clocked the fastest time by an Indian in men’s 400m hurdles this year when he finished behind gold medal winner Mohammed Hemeida Bassem (48.64 seconds) of Qatar and Yusaku Kodama (48.96) of Japan.

The 25-year-old’s previous best was 49.49 which he had clocked last year.

(with inputs from PTI)