Gold medal winning Sreeshankar simply happy to be back competing

Murali Sreeshankar calls Kalinga Stadium his lucky ground. It was here that he recorded his first 8m jump (8.20m in 2018) as well as his personal best (8.41m in 2023). Returning to his happy hunting ground after recovering from a career threatening left knee - the surgery has left a long scar - he needed every bit of fortune to win his fourth straight competition in five weeks.

- Shantanu Srivastava

Egged on by a passionate crowd, Sreeshankar leapt 8.13m in his sixth and last attempt to steal the thunder from young Shahnavaz Khan, who looked set for a win with his first 8m-plus jump, an 8.04m effort.

“I believe this is Bhubaneswar magic. Whenever I come here, I just do good,” the 26-year-old said. Sreeshankar looked in decent rhythm, two fouls sandwiching attempts of 7.92m, 7.95m, 7.93m before the winning effort to carry his form from Almaty, where he won last week.

“This is the third country that I'm moving past over the past 10 days, so I just need to get some rest before I get ready for a big one at the Inter State (in Chennai). I am happy for Shahnavaz too since we train together and push each other,” the 2023 Asian Games silver medallist, who now trains at SAI Thiruvananthapuram, said.