Sreeshankar seventh in long jump final at World Athletics Championships

Eugene (USA)

National record holder M. Sreeshankar finished seventh with 7.96m in the men’s long jump final at the World Athletics Championships here on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, who has a personal best of 8.36m which came in the Federation Cup at Malappuram in early April, opened his series with 7.96m but could not better it in his other two legal jumps (fourth jump 7.89, sixth 7.83).

Performance-wise, it was the weakest long jump final at the Worlds in nearly 20 years and was packed with surprises with Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, this year’s outdoor world leader with 8.45m, taking the bronze with just 8.16m.

China’s Asian Games champion Jianan Wang shocked Greece’s Olympic gold medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou, who had a consistent series, to grab the gold with a season-best 8.36m in the last round.

Surprisingly Sweden’s Thobias Montler (7.81m), last year’s Diamond League champion and the indoor Worlds silver medallist in February, and Japan’s Asian champion Yuki Hashioka (7.86m), who was sixth in last year’s Tokyo Olympics, failed to even progress to the top eight.

Meanwhile, Parul Chaudhary clocked a personal best 9:38.09s while finishing 12th in her heat (and 31st overall) in the women’s 3000m steeple chase, but that was not enough to carry her to the final.

And M.P. Jabir was seventh in his men’s 400m hurdles heat (31st overall out of 35 finishers) and failed to progress to the semifinal.