It was the first time long jumper M. Sreeshankar was facing the young Jeswin Aldrin after the latter had taken away his National record with a stunning 8.42m in the Indian Jumps Open at Ballari in March.
That massive jump made Aldrin this year’s World leader and one had expected a fierce battle when the two lined up at the International Jumping Meeting, a World Athletics Continental Tour-Bronze event at Kallithea, near Athens, on Wednesday.
But while Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sreeshankar — the defending champion — produced a fine series that had five eight-plus jumps including the gold-winning 8.18m. in Greece, Aldrin had a disappointing day finishing with a best of 7.85m for the silver.
“Sreeshankar felt good and he was expecting something like 8.30m (qual. Standard 8.25m) to qualify for the World Championships (Budapest, August),” S. Murali, Sreeshankar’s dad and coach, told The Hindu from Athens on Thursday.
“But the track appeared to be an old one, the runway was almost dead. Almost everybody appeared to be struggling.”
Aldrin did not reply to messages but put out a tweet on Thursday morning about how he felt.
“No excuses! Just gotta figure out where it went wrong,” it said.
Aldrin, who has already qualified for the Worlds with his 8.42m earlier, will have another chance to fight it out with Sreeshankar in the Paris Diamond League on June 9.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games silver medallist triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker will be in action in the Rome Diamond League on June 2.
This season’s World No. 3 Praveen Chithravel was in the Rome DL’s entry list earlier but he has now pulled out.
“He is injured, had to withdraw,” said a source in the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport where Praveen, who had broken the national record (17.37m, in Cuba) earlier this month, trains. No further details of the injury were given.
Shaili’s big jump
On the brighter side, young female long jumper Shaili Singh has made a big jump in the ‘Road to Budapest’ rankings, from the 42nd rung to 27th after the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Yokohama where she had a bronze-winning, wind-aided 6.59m (personal best 6.76m), which has brightened her chances of flying to the Worlds. The 19-year-old’s World ranking has also improved from 76 to 47.
