Murali Sreeshankar wins Comeback of the Year at Sportstar Aces Awards after injury return
Murali Sreeshankar’s journey back to the runway has been one of resilience, patience and quiet defiance. On Friday in Mumbai, the Indian long jumper was honoured with the Comeback of the Year award at the Sportstar Aces Awards, recognition for a return that once seemed improbable.
In April 2024, his Paris Olympics dream went up in smoke when a ruptured patellar tendon, the ligament connecting the kneecap to the shin bone, was diagnosed along with a chipped piece of bone. Sreeshankar had secured a quota for the Paris Olympics with an 8.37 m leap to win silver at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 in Bangkok.
Yet Sreeshankar fought back. He marked his return from a lengthy layoff by winning the long jump competition at the Indian Open Athletics meet in Pune in July last year, producing an Indian-season-leading 8.05 m. What made the effort striking was its consistency, with a series that read: 7.84 m, 7.99 m, 7.84 m, 8.05 m, x, 7.84 m.
The 26-year-old soon carried that momentum abroad. Competing outside India for the first time since 2023, he won the men’s long jump at the Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Portugal with a best jump of 7.75 m.
Sreeshankar also qualified for the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships in August last year. While he couldn’t meet the entry standard of 8.27m, he secured the 36th and final spot for the men’s long jump event through the World Rankings route, edging out Frenchman Erwan Konate and Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarria both by a solitary point.
Sreeshankar was tied with China’s Peiqi Gao but since a country can field a maximum of three participants (the number can go up to four if the defending champion is from the same nation) and Gao was fourth amongst the Chinese jumpers, the Indian clinched the last available berth. The Indian athlete logged a best jump of 7.78m in Tokyo to finish 25th.
The 2026 Sportstar Aces Awards are presented by Amul, co-presented by Casagrand in association with SRM Institute of Science and Technology. SBI, Christ University, Bharat Petroleum, LIC, Sports Authority of Telangana, NTPC, Indian Softball Cricket Foundation, Jaquar And Company Private Limited are associate partners. Reva University is the education partner. Blue Star is the cooling partner while Times Now is the telecast partner.
Published on Mar 13, 2026