M Sreeshankar jumps 8.29m to win gold in USA; result won't be considered for World Championship qualification

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Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar made his first big jump of the season as the Commonwealth Games silver medallist made a leap of 8.29 metre to claim the gold medal at the MVA High-Performance athletics meet 1 in Chula Vista, USA on Sunday.

The effort should have sealed his World Athletics Championships 2023 spot as the qualifying standard is set at 8.25m. However, Sreeshankar's jump came with a tailwind of +3.1m/s, making it ineligible as the maximum limit is 2 metres per second.

Photo Credit: PTI

The Commonwealth Games silver medallist was the sole jumper to cross the 8m-mark on the day. China's Ma Weidong took the second spot with a jump of 7.99m followed by his countrymen Huafeng Huang for the bronze medal with an effort of 7.61m.

This was the second competition for the Indian long jumper this year as he made a 7.94m jump in his opening event of the season at the Indian Grand Prix in Bengaluru earlier this month.

Sreeshankar held the men's long jump national record in India with his 8.36 jump but it was surpassed by Jeswin Aldrin with an effort of 8.42m at the second Indian Open Jumps Championships in March.

With inputs from PTI