Long jumper Sreeshankar to begin season in Shanghai/Suzhou Diamond League

Top Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar will compete in back-to-back Diamond League Meetings in Shanghai/Suzhou and Doha on April 27 and May 10, respectively, to begin action in a crucial Olympic year.

The 25-year-old Sreeshankar last year became only the third Indian to finish in the top three in a Diamond League Meeting in the Paris leg on June 9 with a third-place finish, after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.

He had won a silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year but was disappointed with a qualifying round exit in the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

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“TeamIIS athlete Sreeshankar Murali will begin his 2024 season at the ShanghaiDL, and then make his way to Qatar for the DohaDL. Let’s do this, Sree!,” said a tweet from Inspire Institute of Sport, where Sreeshankar trains.

In Doha, Sreeshankar will be joined by Chopra and another Indian javelin thrower Kishore Jena in a star-studded field. Both Chopra and Jena are starting their season in Doha.

Meanwhile, 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker will compete in the season’s first Diamond League Meeting in Xiamen, China, on April 20.