Murali Shreeshankar delivers on his promise and registers India’s second medal in the CWG 2022. He recorded an 8.08 meters jump in his fifth attempt to win the silver medal.
It was not a pleasant outing for the Indian until that point. He had stayed out of the contention tally for medals for the first four attempts. However, in the fifth attempt, he cleared the 8-meter mark as he had done in the qualification round.
This jump brought him level with Bahama’s Laquan Nairn, who had the best jump of 8.08. Both the jumpers remained tied despite their sixth attempt, and Nairn was awarded the gold.
Under the long jump rules, if two jumpers are tied at the same distance, their second-best jumps are considered. And that his how Nairn got an edge over Shreeshankar. He had a second-best attempt of 7.98 meters, while Shreeshankar had just 7.84 meters.
The bronze medal was awarded to Jovan Van Vuuren of South Africa for his 8.06-meter jump. The other Indian in the fray, Muhammad Anees Yahiya, could only manage a jump of 7.97 meters. And ended fifth on the tally.
Murali Shreeshankar creates history
With this victory, Shreeshankar has registered the best medal by an Indian male jumper at Commonwealth Games. He became the first men for India to wina silver at CWG. The previous best for India came in 1978 when Suresh Babu managed a bronze.
However, this is the second silver in totality for India. Prajusha Maliakkal won a silver in the 2010 edition in Delhi. While the only other medal won by India in the history of the sport came in the form of Anju Bobby George’s bronze in 2022.
Shreeshankar has registered the second medal for Indian athletes in this year’s CWG. Tejaswin Shankar on Wednesday opened the account for India with a high jump of 2.20 meters.
