Glasgow: India’s Murali Sreeshankar made an assured start to his Commonwealth Games campaign by qualifying for the men’s long jump final with a first-attempt leap of 8.01 metres, comfortably surpassing the automatic qualification mark on the opening day of athletics competition here on Monday. Competing in Qualifying Group A, the 27-year-old required a jump of at least 8.00m to secure direct entry into the final. Sreeshankar needed just one attempt to achieve that target, after which he ended his qualification round, conserving his energy for Wednesday’s medal event.
The Kerala athlete topped Group A with his opening effort, finishing ahead of Jamaica’s Jordan Turner, whose best jump was 7.80m. Had Sreeshankar fallen short of the qualification standard, he would have needed to finish among the 12 best performers across both qualification groups to advance. Instead, the Indian made his intentions clear from the outset, removing any uncertainty with an opening jump that comfortably met the required mark. IANS
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