Murali Sreeshankar hails Neeraj Chopra's Olympic gold for rise in Indian track and field standards

Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who finished seventh at the World Athletics Championships 2022 in the USA on Saturday, feels Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold medal win at the Tokyo Olympics can take Indian track and field athletes to the next level.

Neeraj Chopra’s javelin throw gold at Tokyo 2020 was India’s first Olympic medal in track and field.

“Altogether, the Indian track and field has been lifted greatly by Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, I feel,” Murali Sreeshankar told Olympics.com shortly after competing in the men’s long jump finals at Oregon 2022.

“We are hoping to improve our performances across the board in all competitions and I am confident that the coming years will be very good,” he added.

The 23-year-old Sreeshankar, the national record holder in men’s long jump, also expressed his delight at the pace at which jumpers in the country have been progressing in recent years.

“This time we have three long jumpers and triple jumpers at the worlds - that’s a great sign. In India, the level of the jumpers is going up. We have tough competition domestically and that helps,” Murali Sreeshankar reasoned.

In the men’s long jump competition at the Oregon world championships, Sreeshankar was accompanied by compatriots Jeswin Aldrin and Muhammed Anees Yahiya. Heading into the tournament Sreeshankar and Aldrin had recorded the 2022 season’s third and fourth best jumps in the world, respectively.

“We have been motivating and driving each other and that has contributed a lot to the rise in standards in the Indian long jump scene,” Murali Sreeshankar noted.

Sreeshankar, however, was the only one among the three who managed to qualify for the finals, where he finished seventh.

“Today didn’t go as I wanted it to go but it was great competing in a star-studded field like we had today,” said Murali Sreeshankar.

In the final, Sreeshankar had the opportunity to compete against the likes of the reigning Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Maykel Masso among other top global athletes. The experience, Sreeshankar believes, will serve him well in the future.

“I came in seventh in the World Indoor Athletics Championships 2022 in Belgrade too. I want to improve in next year’s world championships but the Paris 2024 Olympics remains the main focus. It feels great to represent India in the final of a world-class event like this one,” Sreeshankar stated.