Murali Shreeshankar duly delivered on the nation's hopes as he clinched a silver medal in the men's long jump event at the Commonwealth Games 2022 on Thursday. After Neeraj Chopra was ruled out of the Birmingham spectacle, all the eyes were on Shreeshankar to lead India's charge in athletics.
Earlier, the 23-year-old had finished seventh in the recently concluded World Athletics Championship, and thus there were a lot of hopes from Shreeshankar who had an incredible turn-around in the final.
Shreeshankar saved his best for the last and in his fifth attempt, he recorded a jump of 8.08 metres to leapfrog from seventh to second.
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In fact, the youngster from Palakkad, Kerala was incredibly unlucky to miss out on the gold medal, having been tied for the top spot at 8.08 metres but Laquan Nairn of Bahama took the gold medal as he had a better second jump of 7.94 as compared to 7.84 metres by Sreeshankar.
Watch Murali Shreeshankar's incredible leap of 8.08 metres:
This is India's second medal in athletics at Birmingham 2022 after Tejaswin Shankar won bronze in the high jump on Wednesday.
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This medal takes to 19 India's total medal count at this Commonwealth Games - 5 gold, 7 silver and 7 silver.
South Africa's Jovan van Vuuren got the bronze medal with a best effort of 8.06 metres.
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This is India's first silver medal in men's long jump at the Commonwealth Games and second medal in this discipline after Suresh Babu won bronze in Edmonton, Canada in 1978.
The last Indian to win a long jump medal at the Commonwealth Games was Anju Bobby George who won the women's long jump bronze medal in 2002.
Muhammad Anees Yahiya, the other Indian in the men's long jump final finished fifth with a best effort of 7.97 metres
With inputs from IANS
