K. Keerthivasan CHENNAI
Long jumper M. Sreeshankar has recovered well mentally and physically after the debacle in the Tokyo Olympics.
The 22-year-old said the new season will be a challenging one as there will be quite a few major National and International meets, culminating in the Asian Games in September.
Receives award
He was in the City on Sunday to receive the Kerala Sportspersons Association (KESPA)-V.P. Sathyan Award, carrying a cash prize of ₹25,000.
Sreeshankar said he was looking for consistency in all the meets he will be participating in in the forthcoming season and that a medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games was a real possibility.
“I am pretty much confident of winning a medal in Commonwealth Games. In the 2020-21 CWG rankings, I am below two strong Jamaicans. An effort of 8.20m will definitely fetch me a medal, whether it is the CWG, Asian Games, or World University Games. An 8.30m jump is a medal in the Olympics and Asian Games. It all depends on whether I am able to produce that mark on a particular day,” said Sreeshankar, who created a National record with a leap of 8.26m in the 2021 Federation Cup in Patiala.
Currently training in Palakkad with his father Murali, Sreeshankar said he will consider going back to the National camp in Bengaluru after seeing the results in Federation Cup in April.
Sreeshankar will begin his new season with the National jumps championships in Thiruvananthapuram from March 1.
Busy schedule
“I will be taking part in only one Grand Prix on March 13. It will be followed by the Federation Cup in Kozhikode. There is a break in between and then I will proceed to the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and a few European circuit events in and around Italy and then the World University Games in Chengdu (China), the World Outdoor Championships in Eugene (USA), CWG in July 2022 and the Asian Games,” he said.
