New Delhi: “Well, you can say that,” says a sheepish Murali Sreeshankar on being asked if competing again feels like a rebirth of sorts. For someone who recovered from life-threatening appendicitis surgery in 2018 and a potentially career-ending knee injury that thwarted his hopes for a Paris Olympics participation in 2024, expressions of the kind mentioned above take on a whole new, and perhaps deeper meaning.
“I am genuinely happy to be competing again. I thank God each day for this. So yes, in a sense it’s a rebirth for me and I can’t be more grateful for this,” he said. The 27-year-old went under the knife for a patellar tendon rupture in April 2024 at Aspetar Hospital in Doha and returned to competitions last year. The procedure involved a skin graft and three screws in his knee.
The surgery necessitated him to change his approach to training and recovery. Under the guidance of strength and conditioning expert Wayne Lombard, Sreeshankar’s current training plans demand a three-hour-five-days-a-week regimen.
“Earlier, I used to train six days, but now the body demands more time to recover. I understand my body a lot better now. I have to do a lot of rehab, pre-training activations, and post-training care for my knee,” he informed. That involves daily icing, using compression boots for his quadriceps and regular soft tissue work for his hip flexors “so that there is no load coming into the left knee.”
Though Sreeshankar has reconciled to the fact that his left knee will never feel the same, he does feel he has the potential to be where no Indian has been. “I do feel 8.50m is very achievable, and I can see it coming very soon,” he said. The current national record stands at 8.42m and belongs to Jeswin Aldrin; Sreeshankar’s best is 8.41m.
“I can’t expect my knee to be at 100 percent because the surgery was a very serious one. Thankfully, I am in my best shape. I am able to manage the knee better.”
The jumper insists he has flirted with 8.50m quite often, most recently at last month’s Indian Open Athletics Series 6 in Chennai. Sreeshankar won the event with a leap of 8.04m but believes his best jump, that was marked foul, went above the national record.
“I had two good jumps there and one of them went over that national record cone. I fouled that by a whisker. So, I know that big jump in me. I am just waiting for the right moment when it clicks,” he said.
At the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Sreeshankar would be expected to do better than his silver-winning performance (8.08m) from Birmingham 2022. His major challenge, he reckons, is expected to come from Jamaica and Australia with Liam Adcock being the biggest threat. The 30-year-old Aussie with a best of 8.34m is in fine form this season, having secured six podium finishes out of ten competitions this year.
“At big events such as the CWG or Asian Games, distance alone doesn’t matter too much,” said Sreeshankar. “You should be able to adapt to the conditions and pressure. UK is usually cold and wet, so long jump is unlikely to produce big jumps. In such a scenario, you should be able to execute your technique well.”
“I usually have a lot of boxes to tick when I jump, starting from load up, run-up to jump. The approach has to be right, take-off position has to be right, body position during take-off has to be right so that you can maximise the jump. If my technical parameters are checked, I know I will invariably produce a good jump. Ultimately, you need to jump 1cm more than your opponents to win.”
Having also secured the Asian Games berth by meeting AFI’s entry standard at the Federation Cup, Sreeshankar will be in action at the ongoing Inter State Championships following which he’ll leave for Spala in Poland for a training stint. Also on the radar is next month’s Monaco Diamond League, pending invitation.
“A jump of 8.30-plus puts you in medal contention both at Asian Games and CWG. As of now, there are 2-3 guys who can jump that distance. Ultimately, it will come down to who handles the pressure and conditions better,” he said.
