World Athletics Championships 2023: Neeraj Chopra is a very big motivation for all Indian athletes, says Murali Sreeshankar

Having won a silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, India's long jump star Murali Sreeshankar has now set his sights on the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, starting August 19.

The Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist in an interview with Jiocinema spoke about his preparedness and how recent performances in international events have boosted his confidence. He also speaks highly of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra for constantly inspiring fellow athletes.

The 24-year-old also gave some insights from behind the scenes - from sports-related dinner table conversations with his family, being a passionate Kobe Bryant fan and how his academic science background helps him perform better as an athlete.

Here are the excerpts from Murali Sreeshankar's Jiocinema interview:

Q: Your personal best of 8.41 meters would've won you the gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, what would you say about that?

Ans: I am aware of the fact that me and my friend Jeswin - have made some good jumps this year. It's good enough to win World Championships or an Olympic Medal but the perspective is that we must perform on that particular day. What we always try to emulate is to try our max and do what we have done in the domestic circuit and try to do what we have done on our best day and at the time of the World Championships Final.

So that's what we are always trying to do and with the kind of exposure I have got this season and the Diamond League competitions - I have faced with the top athletes in the world. I will be able to put up a good jump in the World Championships Finals and my obvious aim would be to match my personal best and to improve it. So, I am very optimistic about the World Championships.

Q: Earlier Indian athletes used to go to events with the mindset of just participating. Nowadays Indian athletes go with the mindset of winning medals. What do you feel about this change?

Ans: There has been a big paradigm shift in the mindset of the athletes, thanks to Neeraj bhaiya, because of his gold we are also learning to think big and high. Also, one notable fact is that a lot of athletes are getting international exposure recently and in the past 2-3 years.

Most of the athletes are travelling abroad for high-quality competitions like the Diamond League events, World Athletics and Continental tour events and we are now regularly competing in Europe with the best athletes in the world.

So that has made the process a bit easier for the athletes to put up a good show at major competitions such as the World Championships or the Olympic Games and do their best performance and be against the world beaters.

So, that has been quite a determining factor in all our performances because I have been out of India for five months now, I have been in different places in Europe adapting to different conditions and competing with the top athletes in the world and that has given me a lot of confidence and I will be able to control my nerves at the big events such as the Olympics and the World Championships.

If you see the World University games, we have got medals and our youth athletes are doing well and it's quite evident in the recently held Asian Championships in Thailand and last year's CWG in Birmingham. So, we are gradually improving our performances - it's a steady improvement and I am sure in a few years it will be Indian athletes winning medals in global tournaments will be a normal thing.

Q: How big an inspiration Neeraj Chopra is for Indian athletes?

Ans: The inspiration not only comes from the resume of medals he has but also from the type of person he is, he is always motivating and inspiring a lot of athletes. He will reach out to all the athletes after their competition if they perform really well or not well.

He is always supporting and encouraging all the athletes and when it comes from such a big personality, such a big character like Neeraj Chopra - it's a very big motivation for all the athletes to perform well. He also shares his experience when we are together.

So that's a very good thing for developing athletes like me and the others to get insightful knowledge about how to adjust to conditions, how the food and weather is and to get that sort of insight and information from an athlete like Neeraj Chopra that will really help us a lot in our own sport and in our own ways and he is a very simple and down to earth person and is always ready to share his experience, insights and his knowledge with us. So that's very nice of him and very good for all of us.

Q: This year around 65 athletes have crossed the 8-meter mark in the world. What do you make of that?

Ans: The competition in men's long jump is very tough right now - it's not like one athlete is jumping further and the rest are behind. There is a mix of jumpers who are equally capable of winning. So, in that perspective, men's long jump is really difficult and the fact that the top 3 jumps in the world made this year have been made by Asian athletes and the two best jumps in the world have been made by Indian athletes.

So, you can just see how difficult it is for the men's long jump even in India. So, it all matters on how we hold onto our nerves that day and how we get adjusted to the conditions and the nerves of the World Championships and with the kind of exposure we have right now I think it should be good for us.

Q: Everyone from your family is an athlete, how does that help? Could you give a little bit of insight on that?

Ans: Actually it's pretty much easy for me because my parents and my sister - we are all involved in sports and we all talk and discuss sports and it's a natural thing for me and in my family whether it be a living room conversation or anywhere.

My dad is a big basketball fan, so we discuss about basketball as well, it's a great atmosphere in my family and they know how to support an athlete and they know how rest, recovery and nutrition and all aspects are very important to be a world-class athlete and my parents both being international athletes, they know how important these factors are in developing an international athlete and to win a medal.

So that has been kind of a blessing for me as both my parents were international athletes and coached by other international athletes and well-known coaches, so I get insights from them. So, it's quite natural in my family, sports is in my blood and everyone is eager for my performances in the World Championships and I am sure I will rise up to the occasion.

Q: How has your preparation been for the World Championships and what goals have you set for yourself?

Ans: At the beginning of the season, I had a good training stint in Texas to correct a few things in my approach run - in the technical aspects of my jump and then we moved on to Europe and we started competing in the continental tour events followed by the Diamond League circuits.

And now we have come to Hungary, where we are having the pre-world championships camp and our national team is also training here. So, the preparations have been going really well. The last month at the Asian Championships, I had a good jump and now I have enough preparatory phase time heading towards the World Championships now and the training has been going really well and the weather in Hungary is very good now. Everything is in proper sync, I hope that the World Championships are also very good.

Q: Can you tell us about your discussion with Neeraj's coach?

Ans: That was more like a dinner table conversation which I had with Dr Klaus because he is a biomechanical expert and I also have a science background. So, I am very intrigued to know about factors like strength, power, speed and different parameters of weightlifting and I am very much interested to know about all this because I have done all these things.

And my dad has been teaching me all this, so I always try to relate what I am doing to what I studied in my school and college. When I ask him about the strength and the power aspect, he just gave me some great examples of how sports cars work, how a tractor works or how buses work and what mechanical principles are involved in all these things.

I try to get insightful knowledge on the aspects of training which are similar in the long jump as well as javelin. One thing he told me was power, which is how fast you are able to use the strength, which works fairly well, both in the long jump and javelin throw as well because of the power which the javelin thrower gives while blocking his leg and transferring the relative horizontal velocity in his arm and the momentum which the javelin thrower throws, it is all about the power and same with the takeoff in the long jump as well.

For the optimal translation of power, I have been asking about the exercises and what parameter would you prefer more, strength or power, and how important power is to strength, so he gave me a lot of great examples and he is a very good teacher also, so I could learn a lot from him.

Q: Can you tell us how your education helps you as an athlete?

Ans: I did my graduation in Mathematics, BSC Mathematics and I have never found any use for Mathematics, so far in my career or my daily life. The only thing I have found useful is the principles of mechanics and even a lot of aspects in Physics and with relation to work, power, strength like all the kinematic motions and everything.

I am able to relate to it and I have been able to tell my dad that these are the principles of motion and this is how we have learned there, I could relate to what I am doing especially in the weight lifting hall. Now, there are many studies which are coming up that the quantity of power is very important to all athletes - sprinters, jumpers and throwers, the power aspect is a very important factor.

I have been trying to figure out how we can improvise our training program and we can implement it, it's also my insight which goes hand in hand with my dad's insight so that my performance can be optimized, and I can relate to what I am doing with my studies also. So, it has helped to a certain extent.

Q: You are big Kobe Bryant fan; do you follow any of his pre-tournament routines?

Ans: I just make sure I have his kind of work ethic because Kobe Bryant is popularly known for his work ethic. He was in that circuit for 20 years and the best basketball player in the world, year after year, injury after injury - he has been back.

He has won five championships, and there are seasons where he has carried the team alone to the championships just because of his work ethic and commitment to the game. He is also a big fan of the game and he always learns the sport.

My kind of insight of learning about the sport, to be honest, connecting with my studies and with my sport has always been inspired by Kobe Bryant's approach to the game because he studies the sport a lot.

He has been linking his theories and he even studied the referee manual just to know the position of the referee and where the referee would stand so that he can get away with some fouls and he also watches, studies and analyzes the game. So even though I am trying to do that, there are a lot of things in my insight that work in my sport that will help me improve.

Q: Do you see yourself winning an Olympic medal?

Ans: Olympics is one year away, so there is a lot of work to be done, preparations to be done and in one year a lot of things can change and I am sure I can improve even further because we have started planning out the 2024 season from now on itself and I hope everything will be in place, so touch wood, I believe everything will fall in place.

Catch all the action from the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, LIVE on JioCinema from August 19 onwards