Anju Bobby George: Murali Sreeshankar needs to adapt, readjust at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Murali Sreeshankar will compete at the men’s long jump event at Tokyo 2020 and the 22-year-old will look to breach the 8.40 metre mark to come close to winning an elusive medal.

The Kerala-born jumper is the national record holder with a jump of 8.26m earlier this year and has expressed confidence that he could reach 8.40m.

However, Anju Bobby George, who finished fifth in long jump at Athens 2004 Olympics, opined that although Sreeshankar is a promising athlete and one to watch out for in the future, the long jumper needs more experience of competing against the top athletes.

“Sreeshankar is a talented athlete. He has already shown that he has that ability and he’s jumping above 8.20m mark. But the consistency must come from competition experience and unfortunately, he’s missing that. He needs to learn a lot. There are lots of things yet to change, yet to correct. When he competes with the best of the best in the world, he needs that competition experience with the top athletes,” George shared her observation on Sreeshankar with Olympics.com.

She pointed that Sreeshankar needs to build more muscle mass and must make minor changes to his running pattern as the margin for error isn’t big.

“He has good speed and good jumping ability. He’s a quick learner also. He’s very good at studies, so he can learn things very fast and the science behind sports, he’s able to grasp. Athletes like jumpers we need to learn things very fast, and we need to adjust, because every year technique changes, and we need to adapt to that. He still must build little more in terms of strength. The running pattern also he needs to change in some areas,” George explained.

Anju Bobby George, who won bronze at World Athletics Championships back in 2003 and remains the only Indian athlete to do so, elaborated as to why Sreeshankar must learn to readjust if he hopes to make the cut after the first round. She stressed on the importance of being mentally strong which would enable him to keep his focus and not get distracted.

“In long jump, the first round is the difficult task. Because athletes will be jumping on both sides and the best 12 will be in. We need to focus on that. Everyone will be trying to clear the mark in the first jump, if you cannot do that you have to wait till the third jump. You must keep checking which position you are in, whether you can stop or must readjust the target.

“So, all sorts of things are there, and you need to prepare for that mentally. First task is to clear the first round. Without losing your focus, make sure you get into the best 12,” she mentioned.

When is Shreeshankar in action at Tokyo 2020?

Shreeshankar will be in action in the men's long jump qualification on July 31.