Sreeshankar vows to come back stronger

Muscle imbalance reason for miserable show in Tokyo

He was virtually flying in April, producing some big jumps, but something went wrong for long jumper M. Sreeshankar in early May. He felt weak, it was tough to push himself and with the Olympics close, desperation set in. For someone who had leapt to a National record 8.26m in the Federation Cup in March, there was a shocking slump in Sreeshankar’s form in June and July. The 22-year-old could only manage 7.74m (Indian GP) in June and 7.69, his poorest jump this year, at the Tokyo Olympics. “My body felt very weak then. To get the sort of jumps I produced (at recent meets), I don’t even need a short approach. During training, there have been sessions when I felt disappointed after jumping 8.10m,” said Sreeshankar in a chat with The Hindu from JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), Vijayanagar in Karnataka.