World Athletics Championships | Murali Sreeshankar fails to qualify for finals, Jeswin Aldrin barely makes the cut

08/23/2023

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National record holder in men's long jump, Jeswin Aldrin barely qualified for the finals of the event at the World Athletics Championships on Wednesday. But on the other hand, Olympian Murali Sreeshankar failed miserably and failed to make the cut for the finals.

Aldrin, who achieved the national record of 8.42m earlier this year, managed to clear the 8.0m mark to make it to the final. But Sreeshankar, who has been excellent this year, came up with jumps of 7.74m, 7.66m, and 6.70m. His performance in the event highlighted India's poor performance in the championship so far, where none of the athletes have made it to the finals, let alone winning a medal.

What is even more surprising is that the duo had entered the competition as the world leaders this year, but failed to live up to the expectations. Just recently, Aldrin had scaled 8.22m in Bern to finish with a bronze medal. Sreeshankar had a better run before coming to the tournament, where in June he got a personal best of 8.41m at the nationals, and then won the silver medal at the Asian Championships with a distance of 8.37m in July.

With this missed opportunity, all eyes will only be on Neeraj Chopra, to deliver a medal for the country.