India’s M. Sreeshankar certified for the Paris 2024 Olympics with an 8.37m soar that gained him a silver medal within the males’s long soar competitors on the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Taipei long jumper Lin Yu Tang had been struggling to succeed in eight metres for the final couple of years. He seemed to be caught on 7.95.
However this 12 months, he gained the Indoor Asian gold in February with 8.02m and in May produced a private finest 8.12m in an Osaka meet.
So when Tang got here up with an 8.40m soar in his fourth try on the Asian Championships in Bangkok on Saturday, the world’s third finest soar this 12 months, M. Sreeshankar couldn’t imagine his eyes.
“I know he is a good jumper, still it was a surprise for me,” mentioned Sreeshankar, the No. 2 within the World record this 12 months.
This 12 months is a long one for the nation’s prime athletes. After the Bangkok Asians, they will must prepare for subsequent month’s World Championships in Budapest after which for the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.
The 8.37m that got here with the Asian silver on Saturday additionally noticed Sreeshankar obtain the qualification customary (8.27m) for subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics. The qualification gates for Paris opened on July 1 and the 24-year-old Indian is thrilled that he’s an early fowl.
“The first target in Bangkok was to qualify for the Olympics. And now that I have done that, I will open my 2024 season very late, only by May or June,” mentioned the Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
That he believes would assist him get better nicely after the laborious 2023 season and return recent for subsequent 12 months.
India’s Sreeshankar competes within the males’s long soar occasion through the IAAF Diamond League “Athletissima” athletics assembly on the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise in Lausanne, on June 30, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
AFP
Having completed third within the Paris Diamond League this 12 months, Sreeshankar is a assured man now.
“This season has helped me adapt to different kinds of conditions. I knew the weather here (in Bangkok) was similar to Bhubaneswar. And my body responds well to warm weather,” he mentioned.
“The key aspect today was the warm-up. I precisely prepared a warm-up schedule, how to do it, when to do it and all that. The competition started at 4.10 p.m. and ended at 6.15… some solid two hours. And the preparation helped.”