Muristek
JUST over four years ago, Murali Sreeshankar, not yet 19, jumped to 7.99 metres at the Federation Cup in Patiala. It was just one centimetre short of the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark.
India No. 1 Murali Sreeshankar faces a challenge from Jeswin AldrinNow 23, the Kerala lad is a man now — and already a marked man in the Indian long jump scene, which is hotter than ever before. From just across the border, from Tamil Nadu, has emerged another youngster, Jeswin Aldrin, just 20 and already a massive challenge to Sreeshankar.
The set is made complete by Muhammad Anees Yahya, the 26-year-old from Kerala who is set to push his younger competitors and, in the process, push himself.
M Anees YahiyaThis year's Federation Cup event in Kozhikode witnessed an enthralling long jump contest between Sreeshankar and Aldrin, the most competitive long jump contest ever in Indian athletics.
Sreeshankar set a new national record of 8.36m, breaking his own record by 10cm, but didn't win gold; Aldrin had a monstrous jump of 8.37m but didn't get the national record; Yahya had a best jump of 8.06m, far behind the two main men, but good enough to win bronze, and good enough to make it the most competitive long jump event on Indian soil.
Standards
For the record, gold at the 2018 Asian Games was won with a jump of 8.24m; in the more competitive Commonwealth Games the same year, 8.34m was the gold standard while bronze was won in 8.03m. It ma not be practical to extrapolate figures across venues and continents, but we can say with confidence that out of Sreeshankar and Aldrin, one is likely to climb the podium at both Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year.
The Olympics? Well, they're a different ball game altogether ndash; though at last year's Tokyo Games, bronze was won with a jump of 8.21m, which both Sreeshankar and Aldrin are capable of. Sreeshankar, actually, did compete at Tokyo, finishing with a best effort of 7.69m, which wasn't good enough for him to qualify for the final.
Kozhikode contest
Men's long jump at the Kozhikode Federation Cup was set to be the marquee contest ndash; the start to the season had promised that.
At the Indian Open National Jumps Competition in Thiruvananthapuram on February 28, Sreeshankar put up a very impressive sequence of 8.15m, 7.98m, 7.96m, 7.96m, 8.10m and 8.17m — but he won gold only with the final jump! For though Yahya was trying to play catch-up all through, he finally got to 8.15m with his sixth and last attempt to equal his state-mate. Sreeshankar was forced to stretch himself to get gold, and he did get it with 8.17m.
All eyes, thus, were on the long jump pit in Kozhikode, and Kozhikode didn't disappoint.
Sreeshankar had a huge first jump of 8.16m to tell everyone just who's the boss; Aldrin's first effort of 8.01m was solid but unthreatening. But then, out of the blue, Tamil Nadu youngster produced the craziest jump imaginable ndash; the biggest jump ever on Indian soil, a monstrous 8.37m leap that broke Sreeshankar's national record of 8.26m by a startling 11cm!
Sreeshankar had to produce something extraordinary, something unprecedented to ensure that he didn't lose. This would have required two men breaking the national record in the same meet ndash; a very rare feat indeed.
Just a few minutes later, Sreeshankar did rise to the occasion with a monstrous jump ndash; he seemed to have covered around the same distance Aldrin had done, and raised his fist in celebration. Oh, but it was only 8.36m, just 1cm behind Aldrin!
The officials then announced that Aldrin's effort of 8.37m wouldn't count as a national record because it was wind-assisted. His jump was recorded with a tailwind of 4.01m per second, and there's a limit of 2.0 m/s tailwind to be counted as a record.
Aldrin followed his India's best but wind-assisted 8.37m with 8.14m, 8.26m and 8.16m.
Sreeshankar, aware that he was facing an unprecedented challenge, continued to go hard, but had only one more valid jump, 8.07m.
Bronze went to Yahya in 8.06m — the first time ever in Indian athletics that all three medallists jumped past 8 metres!
Sweet future?
Aldrin won gold but Sreeshankar broke his own national record — everyone was happy. "I couldn't have done it without you," Sreeshankar later told Aldrin.
The two are friends, though they come from vastly different backgrounds. Sreeshankar, from Palakkad in Kerala, is coached by his father Murali, a former national level triple-jumper. Aldrin, who's from Madalur in Tamil Nadu, has a sweet background ndash; his grandfather Joseph Abraham is famous as the creator of 'Muscoth halwa'. Muscoth means coconut milk in Sinhala, and legend has it that Abraham came across the recipe for this halwa while travelling in Sri Lanka in the 1950s.
Sreeshankar and Aldrin, both very young yet, are set to sweeten the future of long jump in India. —