Top guns silent, injury-marred India awaits long jump revival

India's men's long jump scene, thriving until a couple of years back, seems to have hit a roadblock

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI: Two years is a long time in elite sport, and nothing exemplifies it better than the dwindling fortunes of India's men's long jump. When Jeswin Aldrin leapt 8.42 metres in March 2023 at the AFI National Champs Competition in Vijaynagar, not only did he break the then national record but also presented India with a rare, tantalising prospect of two elite jumpers pushing each other to meet world standards. Too bad it ended up being a bit of a false dawn.

Aldrin's duel with Murali Sreeshankar was great while it lasted. The Kerala jumper held the previous national mark of 8.36m—achieved at the 2022 Federation Cup in Kozhikode—even though Aldrin, who hails from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, had logged 8.37m at the same event. However, since Aldrin's jump was wind-aided, the national mark went to Sreeshankar.

A year later in Vijaynagar, Aldrin, besides breaking the record in style, produced three 8m-plus jumps in the final. Back then, he had expressed confidence in touching the 8.50m mark in a few years.

Three months later, Sreeshankar came close to Aldrin's record with a personal best of 8.41m in Bhubaneshwar before taking a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games (8.19m). Then came the prolonged drought and a bunch of misfortunes.